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THE 



PHILOSOPHY 



SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE: 



BEING AN EXPLANATION 



OF MODERN MYSTERIES. 



BV 

ANDREW JACKSON DAYIS, 

AUTHOR OF 

^Hature's Divine Revelations," "The Great Harmonia," 
"Arabula," "The Temple," etc., eto. 



REVISED, RESTEREOTYPED, AND ENLARGED. 



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"Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" — Bibt>e. I U ' „ 



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BOSTON: 
WILLIAM WHITE AND COMPANY, 

BANNER OF LIGHT OFFICE, 158 WASHINGTON STREET. 
NEW YORK AGENTS— AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY. 

1872. 






N* 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, 

BY ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS, 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington* 



Stereotyped at the 

WOMEN'S PRINTING HOTJSB, 

Corner Avenue A and Eighth Street, 

New York. 



ACE TO THE FIRST OCTAVO EDITION. 



Particularly during the last fifteen months, the author has re- 
ceived letters from both ladies and gentlemen of education, respect- 
ability, and influence in this country ; all more or less concerning the 
causes of the wonderful phenomena recently unfolded by what are 
commonly termed "mysterious noises." He could not promptly 
respond to the numerous questions of these correspondents for two 
reasons : 

1st. He has been engaged for several months in an interior investi- 
gation respecting the nature and mode of the Divine Existence ; and 
while absorbed in these researches, it is both painful and injurious to 
allow foreign subjects or trains of thought to break in upon that con- 
centration of mind which is essential to his Superior Condition. 

2d. Prior to the writing of this work, the author had not particu- 
larly and interiorly investigated or surveyed the ichole field occupied 
by these mysterious phenomena, sufficiently to pronounce an intelli- 
gent and reliable judgment upon their merits or demerits. Neither 
had he examined the subject with any special reference to its real or 
apparent connection with the teachings and developments of the Har- 
monial Philosophy. 

In order to properly answer all the letters and questions of his es- 
teemed correspondents aright, the author has been impressed to turn 
aside from the great subject of his investigations, which are designed 
for the second volume of '' The Great Harmonia," and write and pre- 
pare the ensuing pages for publication ; they contain the author's 
' ' Interior Impressions " concerning the philosophy of spiritual inter- 
course, in its limited and broadest sense. His impressions are partic- 
ularly addressed to the reader's understanding. 

The exceeding happiness which the revelations of the harmonial 
philosophy have imparted to hundreds of minds in the United States, 
is a source of lasting satisfaction to those who labor for its dissemi- 
nation and application to the interests and pursuits of every-day life. 
For the edification of those who do not comprehend its nature, scope, 
teachings, and tendencies, it is here deemed proper to remark that it 
hath tico objects in view — tiro ends to accomplish, to which all its scien- 
tific, theological, and religious teachings are particularly subservient, 
namely : 

1st. The harmonization of the individual. To accomplish 
this, it presents an analysis of the human affections and faculties ; 
it exhibits both the natural and inverted modes of their manifestation ; 
it discovers the various and diversified causes of evil and wrong in the 



IV PREFACE. 



world, and prescribes the infallible remedy ; it harmonizes the elements 
of the human soul, to the end that men thus united within themselves, 
may conspire and form a united race. It supposes that man possesses, 
in a finite degree, the attributes of the Infinite ; that all Development 

— Architecture — Commerce — Language — Science — Philosophy — 
Theology — Government — Authority — Art — Music — Poetry — etc. , 
have their seat, germ, or beginning principle, in the human soul, and 
that the development of each one is in actual proportion to the soul's 
growth. This is equally true with reference to the race, as it is in 
respect to the individual. 

2d. The harmonization of society ; to bring all affections, profes- 
sions, interests, and pursuits into unity, as the notes of a musical 
instrument. Unity, as the author is impressed to define it in the 
harrnonial philosophy, comprehends every conception and idea of 
' ' Elysium " — " Utopia " — kt City of the Sun " — k ' New Atlantis "— 
" Dream of Perpetual Peace " — " Celestial City " — " New Jerusalem " 

— "Millennium " — " Home " — " Harmony " — " Happiness " — and 
" Heaven ;" for all the conceptions of which these various terms are 
expressive, have their origin in the immanent elements of the Soul, 
and are consequently homocentrical. The various sects and systems 
of faith existing all evince the conception and impression of a period 
of Unity sometime in the future. Each sect, however, entertains but 
partial and in many respects incorrect conceptions of that period, as 
each does also of God, of Immortality, and of that future Happiness 
to which mankind individually aspire ; yet the very existence of such 
a conception of heaven 1 y happiness or millennial harmony among all 
sects and nations, and in all periods o f human history proves that the 
elements and causes of that conception are eternal in Man and in 
Nature, and therefore, homogeneous with the constitution and design 
of the Divine Mind. Unity, in Man and in Society, includes the full 
growth and harmonious action of every Passion, Desire, or Love. 
This is the ultimate of God's design and of human desire ; and when 
it is accomplished, Man will be in harmony with Himself, with ,his 
Neighbor, with the Universe, and with the Universal Father. 

Such are the hurnanitary objects and lofty tendencies of the Har- 
rnonial Philosophy. 

The author is constantly receiving communications from all portions 
of this country (the reception of which he avails himself of this 
opportunity to heartily acknowledge,) — letters, containing convincing 
evidences that the work of individual, social, and theological reforma- 
tion is strongly and steadily progressing. The following extract will 
illustrate the nature of one class of the author's correspondence : 

Norwich, Conn., January, 1851. 

"A. J.Davis: Dear Sir, . . . The work goes bravely forward. . . . 
The reading of Nature's Divine Revelations has just converted an 
Atheist here to a belief in God and Immortality. 

Yours fraternally, D. S, B." 



PREFACE. V 

Hundreds of minds, who cannot find sufficient evidence in any 
existing- systems of religions or philosophy to convince their rational 
understanding of the existence of divine and spiritual things, are be- 
ing constantly rescued and saved from the darkness of scepticism by 
the teachings of the harmonial philosophy. 

Of still another class of letters, containing questions concerning the 
physiological phenomena of death, and the philosophy of spiritual 
intercourse, the following is an example : 

Conway, Mass., Jan. 11, 1851. 

"A. J. Davis : Dear Sir. — The consolation and melody of spirit 
which have flowed in upon me from meditations guided by your writ- 
ings, being yet imperfect in their fulness, urge me to a few inquiries. 

I am often met by those who point to obscurities on the horizon 
that has been so expanded — to yet some clouds on the very brilliant 
sky that has been so generally cleared away ; and some of these 
apparent deformities seem to require the elucidations of the author. 

1 . In the account of James Victor Wilson, why does he say that 
' we -passed from the earth-sphere through the opening at one of the 

poles ' ? 

2. Why, in another place, is it said, that ' it being summer and the 
doors open, you saio the spirit pass out at the door ? ' 

3. By what law are spirits affected by gross matter as indicated in 
these instances? 

4. How is it that tlwse spirits ^walked'' the atmospliere, when, as we 
presume, it is of such uniform density that there can be no aerial moun- 
tains upon the sides of which spirits might loalk f 

5. WJien spirits pass from the earth-sphere, is it to some distant and 
superior sphere from which they often come to guide their earth- friends 
on ica rd a n d h igher ? 

6. If so, do they affect us only through the spirit; or are there physical 
and sensuous demonstrations? 

Many from whom ' anxiety is not yet effaced' would rejoice to have 
these things elucidated. Yours sincerely, J. B. L." 

To the public, and especially to those numerous and esteemed 
minds who have solicited from him information upon the great sub- 
jects now agitating the religious world, the author respectfully pre- 
sents the following investigations into the philosophy and utility of 
spiritual intercourse. A. J. D. 

Hartford, Conn., February, 1851. 



THE ACTION OF LIGHT ON SPIRITUAL MANIFES- 
TATIONS. 



Twenty years after the publication of the first edition of this work, 
the following- appeared in the London (Eng. ) Spiritualist, May 15, 
1871. It indicates the progress of the truth across the Atlantic : 

Many varieties of Spiritual manifestations, such as raps and move- 
ments of solid objects, are produced with ease in bright daylight, but 
the direct spirit-voices can only be produced with ease in the dark. 
Within the past few weeks direct spirit-voices have now and then, in 
the presence of reliable witnesses, made themselves audible in the 
light, also in the open air, through the medium ship of Messrs. Heme 
and Williams, but the utterances were not powerful. As regards 
t nearly all manifestations, observation tends to prove that as the in- 
tensity of the light diminishes, so do the precision and power of the 
manifestations increase. Subdued light is favorable even for trance 
manifestations. 

The very valuable paper on Spiritualism read a few weeks ago to 
the Wood Green Literary Society by Mr. John Traill Taylor, editor of 
The British Journal of Photography, not only awakened an intense 
interest in the subject in the locality wherein it was read, but is 
much valued by all the most philosophical people connected with the 
movement itself. Mr. Taylor said, as reported in our last number : 

' ' Much has been said concerning the suspicion that must neces- 
sarily attach to dark seances, and some have unthinkingly averred 
that what has been alleged to have been effected or performed in the 
dark, could, if it were true, also be done in the light. Those, how- 
ever, who make such a statement have but a very superficial acquaint- 
ance with the nature and power of light. In the meantime and 
pending the efforts now being made to discover the law under which 
spirits can, with the majority of physical mediums, manifest better 
in darkness than in light, let me observe that in such a matter-of-fact 
science as chemistry, light is recognized as a powerful agent in in- 
ducing change. For example, if I form iodide of silver in a room 
from which light is excluded, it will differ in a most important de- 
gree from that formed in even a feebly-lighted room ; if I mix to- 
gether chlorine and defiant gas in a glass globe or bottle, they will 
remain together so long as they are kept in the dark ; but the instant 
that light is allowed to fall upon the mixture, the gases combine 
chemically with a loud explosion like the report of a pistol. If pure 
chloride of silver be sealed in a glass tube, and then be exposed to 



PREFACE. Vll 

light, it will acquire a violet color ; but if it be taken in a dark room, 
it will regain its white color ; even the influence of a beam of sun- 
light in putting out a fire is recognized by many. Now seeing that 
these things are so, how absurd it is for people to prate, with a volu- 
bility in the inverse ratio of their knowledge, about the conditions 
under which spiritual force should be exerted. The superficial wits 
of fifty years ago indulged in unrestrained merriment, accepted by 
some as reason, at the bare idea of the light radiated from a human 
figure ever being able to record the appearance of that figure, and 
yet photography is now a recognized and widely practised branch of 
science. Some experiments of a scientific nature made by me, war- 
rant me in asserting that it is by no means impossible that the pres- 
ence of a spirit form, either in a dark or a light room, may yet be 
rendered visible to the ordinary eye of sense. The reason for this 
will be discovered in the following, to which I invite special atten- 
tion. Light, as many of you are aware, possesses a threefold prop- 
erty : that of rendering material bodies luminous, that of heating, 
and that of inducing chemical change. Now it is possible to so sepa- 
rate these properties as to fill a room with one to the exclusion of the 
others. For example, I could flood a chamber with light taken di- 
rectly from the sun, which would be quite luminous, permitting us 
to see every object as we could outside of the house, and yet which 
should have all the chemical power entirely abstracted. No chemical 
phenomenon depending upon the agency of light, such as the taking 
of a photograph, could possibly take place in such a light. Then, 
conversely, I can flood a chamber with light which to our eyes shall 
be total darkness. The room may be so dark as to render it utterly 
impossible to distinguish any object whatever, even a white object 
on a black ground, and yet that room shall be so luminous in a 
chemical or actinic sense as to permit the persons sitting there to be 
photographed. To the eye of the camera the room shall be full of 
light. I think it very probable that the room in which a dark seance 
is held may be lighted by light which to the officiating spirits may 
be darkness, but which shall permit us to see all that transpires ; and 
when I next have leisure to resume my investigations into the 
physics of spiritualism, I purpose trying some experiments which I 
expect will prove exhaustive." 

We have practically tried several of the experiments suggested by 
Mr. Taylor, so we here give the details, as they may be useful to 
others who intend to work in the same direction. 

About two years ago, the genuine character of the audible spirit- 
voices produced through the mediumship of Mrs. Mary Marshall, the 
younger, having been thoroughly tested, the spirits were asked why 
they could not speak in the light. The reply was, " There is too much 
motion in light; it burns up the atmospheres with which we work." 
From a material and mechanical point of view, most of the motion 
in fight belongs to the red, yellow, and green rays, hence it seemed a 



Vlll PBEFACE. 

reasonable thing to filter these away, and to give them a faint and 
pure blue light to work with. Such light has much less motion in it 
than white light. 

The experiment was tried in the presence of a large private party, 
consisting of a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, two gov- 
ernment officials now connected with the Postal Telegraph service, a 
lady of considerable eminence well-known among Spiritualists, and 
several other friends. The pure blue rays were produced by means of 
an oxy -hydrogen dark-lantern, fitted however with a paraffin lamp for 
this experiment. All but the blue rays were filtered away, by pass- 
ing the light through a solution of ammonia-sulphate of copper, so that 
nothing but the very faintest blue light escaped into the room. This 
blue light was thrown upon one of the walls of the room, leaving the 
other part of the room in darkness. 

The result was that the voices could not be produced. The soli- 
tary point gained by the experiment was that those who sat at the 
dark end of the room, looking towards the illuminated wall, now and 
then saw the guitar flying about, playing tunes, with nothing visible 
holding it. Those who sat with their backs to the light, looking into 
the darkness, did not see this, but all heard the instruments flying 
about like bats, and playing, as common at that time, through Mrs. 
Marshall's mediumship. 

Another experiment was tried about a month ago, at one of Messrs. 
Heme and Williams's seances. The voices, spirit hands, and spirit 
lights had been especially active all over the room as usual. One gas 
jet was then lighted, and turned down till only a speck of blue flame 
was visible, faintly illuminating the glass globe around it. So low 
was the light that nothing else was visible, and the sitters below could 
not see each other, or the table they were touching. This stopped 
the voices, and seemed to drive all the power to manifest to the 
region below the table. The hands, which previously had been very 
busy between the heads of the sitters and the ceiling, and all over 
the room, could then be felt grasping the legs of many of the sitters. 

The next experiment was tried at the same circle about three 
weeks ago. One of Browning's large induction coils was placed in 
the seance room, and it was worked with a battery of six cells placed 
outside the drawing-room window. By this apparatus flashes of 
light could be produced at will, the object being to give an instanta- 
neous flash of light now and then, in order to see solid objects or any- 
thing else which might be movmg in the air. When strangers break 
faith and strike matches at dark seances, as they sometimes do, the 
musical instruments, or whatever may be flying in the air, always fall 
down, and sometimes strike people in the fall, the control over them 
being lost. Bruises and cuts have often been inflicted in this way, 
the striker of the light sees the instrument falling to the ground and 
finds out nothing, and the spirits usually refuse to do anything more 
during the evening. The object of the flashing light was to see the 



PREFACE. IX 

instraments in flight, by a light so instantaneous that the spirits 
should not have time to lose control over whatever they might be 
carrying. 

The result was that nine or ten flashes stopped the manifestations 
for a quarter of an hour afterwards, and a message was given next 
day, to the effect that the light was worse for the manifestations 
than daylight, or any ordinary mode of illumination. 

This raises the question whether the blue and chemical rays may 
not, from a spiritual point of view, though not from ours, contain 
more motion than red and orange light. If a man were made of am- 
monia-sulphate of copper, he would say that orange rays were warm, 
and blue ones were cool, because the latter would pass through him 
without warming him much. If, on the other hand, a man were 
made of bichromate, of potash, he would say that the blue rays were 
warm, and the orange rays cool. Everything, then, depends upon 
the point of view. Therefore, almost the only experiment left un- 
tried which may possibly realize Mr. Taylor's hopes, is to give a 
flashing red or orange light. The light from the flame of a candle, 
filtered through a solution of bichromate of potash, might answer the 
purpose. 

But as the voices did not come with these subdued lights, how is it 
that in rare instances they are produced in daylight ? Perhaps be- 
cause of variations in the health of the medium. Perhaps because 
of extra preparations on the part of the spirits. One of the spirits 
was asked last Saturday whether they had to make many prepara- 
tions for a physical seance. The reply was l ' Yes, and sometimes we 
begin to be busy as much as four hours before it begins." 

As to taking photographs in a pitch dark room, full of invisible 
photographic rays, the expense would be enormous. About the 
only rich sources of such rays are the electric and magnesium lights, 
and if all the visible rays, blue and violet included, be abstracted 
from such lights, the photographic power of the invisible rays left is 
very small. From the many experiments we have made with such 
rays, we think that to get a portrait in this way in absolute darkness, 
and supposing the sitter to remain motionless before the camera for a 
full quarter of an hour, the likeness could only be obtained at an ex- 
pense of some hundreds of pounds. If a trace of blue or violet light 
might be admitted, the expense of the experiment would be greatly 
reduced. By this plan it is utterly hopeless to attempt to photo- 
graph anything in motion. 

New York, January, 1872. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Truth and Mystery . . . . . . .11 

God's Universal Providence 21 

The Miracles of this Age 33 

The Decay of Superstition 55 

The Guardianship of Spirits 63 

The Discernment of Spirits 67 

The Stratford Mysteries Explained . . . .77 

•The Doctrine of Evil Spirits 118 

The Origin of Splrit Sounds 130 

Concerning Sympathetic Spirits 154 

The Formation of Circles 162 

The Resurrection of the Dead 210 

A Voice from the Spirit-Land 249 

Tiie Foundation of True Religion .... 270 

How to Form Spirit Circles 296 

Report of the Dialectical Committee . . . 299 

Facts for Sceptics in Spiritualism 317 

Defeats and Victories, Material and Spiritual . 327 

Eternal Value of Pure Purposes 350 

Wars of the Blood, Brain, and Spirit . ; . 3G1 
Truths, Male and Female 375 



PHILOSOPHY 



OF 



Spiritual Intercourse. 



TRUTH AND MYSTERY. 



The intelligent individual needs not to be informed 
that this Age is one of unparalleled mental activity. 
He who reads the popular publications of these times, 
and has travelled far from the home of his birth, is not 
startled at the announcement of any new discovery in 
science, in philosophy, or in theology. And discoveries 
are being unceasingly unfolded. Realities, more won- 
drous and magnificent than the tales and romances of 
oriental lands, are being daily evolved from the deep 
foundations of nature ; and the familiar developments 
of modern sciences exceed, in their availability to uni- 
versal man, and in their powers of accomplishment, all 



12 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

the mythical achievements of magic, and all the tradi- 
tional wonders of enchantment. 

Moreover, this Age, when compared with any of the 
previous periods, which, like mile-stones, mark the ad- 
vancements of Time, and the events of the past, is 
emphatically one of Thought. The past is stained 
w x ith blood ; because desire and selfishness have wielded 
the sceptre of power ; and passion, not being well dis- 
ciplined and subjugated to Reason's admonitions and 
Xature's immutable laws, has ruled the world instead 
of wisdom; and thus feeling ^ more than judgment, has 
guided the kingdoms and nations of earth into a vast , 
labyrinth of anarchy, superstition, and mystery. Surely, 
it seems strange to affirm, and it is a thing heartily 
to be deplored, that mankind have been victims to an 
excess of feeling — especially, when almost always those 
in power are complained of as wanting in feeling. It 
is not, in fact, that influential minds are without feeling, 
but that its excess and misapplication are vicious ; it is 
with them that undisciplined and ungoverned senti- 
ment which in the heart of the mother causes her to 
" spoil the child ; " she is not wanting in feeling for 
her offspring, but that undisciplined feeling, in its 
excess, sets judgment aside to make room for the un- 
bounded sweep of impulse; it is that uncontrolled, 



TRUTH AND MYSTERY. ^ 13 

unholy, and selfish passion which generates a frenzied 
fanaticism and devastates an empire. 

But I am deeply moved to gratitude in view of the 
fact that, without any diminution of affectional and 
charitable feeling among mankind, this Age is one of 
Intelligence; and that passion, which is as blind and 
dangerous with its impulses in favor of, as in its oppo- 
sition to, any person or object, is now being subjugated 
to the wisdom principle. Love and wisdom, or affection 
and judgment, are becoming more as one — the former 
supplying the soul with warmth,' zeal, and impulse ; the 
latter governing those zealous impulses, rendering the 
mind harmonious and happy, thus gradually bringing 
nations into religious unity and political confederation. 
But here I must utter my impression that many men 
have not yet acquired sufficient wisdom to keep them 
from rushing impetuously, like a tiger from his cage, 
into the commission of horrid crimes and murderous 
deeds ; they start up at the war-shout, and their voices 
echo to the call for blood ; and, though prudence and 
deliberation begin to adorn the career of public, in- 
fluential characters, in our own legislations — though 
many of their acts are tinted with the conservatism of 
wisdom — yet, should the nation become excited upon 
some great question of national policy, there is not 
sufficient wisdom and knowledge of Nature's laws 



14 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

among the masses to save the Union from a most 
disastrous termination ! It is well to know our internal 
weakness, both as individuals and as a nation, in order 
to be prepared for all emergencies. As " knowledge 
is power," so is wisdom a sure safeguard against all 
error and misdirection. If we allow wisdom to guide 
us, we shall inevitably be conducted into the presence 
of Truth, Contentment, and Peace. 

It is undeniable, I think, that Truth is seldom, if 
ever, attained, when the mind which is seeking it is 
actuated by motives of unkindness, or selfishness, or 
unrighteousness. Truth must be sought for its own 
sake ; not to sustain any position which an individual 
may have, in haste, or from the impulsions of desire, 
taken, and, perhaps, upon some new but unwarrantable 
basis. The wise man, and the man of integrity and 
honor, never pollutes his intellectual endowments with 
attempts to sustain any doctrinal position which he 
may have assumed, merely because he assumes it, ' nor 
from pride of opinion, or high-mindedness ; but he 
yields his personal desires and material gratifications 
to the higher aspirations of his nature — is willing to 
sacrifice his reputation, his life even, upon the altar of 
Truth — and is ready to be led, by reason and wisdom, 
into any region of thought whatsoever. 

Humanity has been steadily ascending to the present 



TRUTH AND MYSTERY. 15 

stage of intellectual activity. But the discriminating 
observer cannot but perceive and acknowledge that the 
material and evanescent things of this present existence 
are more sought than the spiritual and eternal realities 
which pertain to a superior life. This fact has been 
proclaimed from the pulpit by the most spiritually- 
minded and intellectually-cultivated teachers of Chris- 
tianity ; and it is particularly deplored by those whose 
religious sentiments are well developed, and whose 
souls are yearning after the realities of immortality, 
and for the unspeakable blessings arising from indi- 
vidual beatification. As a natural consequence of 
man's inclination to seek for and obtain the material, 
he becomes more sceptical concerning everything in- 
visible and super-sensuous in proportion to the develop- 
ment of that materialism which a mere intellectual and 
outward search after truth are certain to establish in the 
mind. Generally speaking, this is not a superstitious 
age, but one of Thought — it is not an age of religious 
culture and illumination, but one of materiality and 
Science. The spiritual is subjugated to the material; 
the future to the present. The Faiths and Dogmas 
of the past are subjected to a kind of intellectually- 
chemical analysis ; and the monarchical Theocracy of 
the senior nations of the earth is giving way — is melt- 
ing like a mountain of ice before the sun — and true 



16 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

Republicanism is fast becoming the mighty spirit of 
existing empires! 

In the midst of this great social and religious com- 
motion and intellectual development of science, I dis- 
cover a secret decay of man's belief in Immortality. 
True, the intuition of the soul has been sufficient in all 
ages to inspire the " untutored mind " with sublime but 
undefined convictions in a future existence for the 
human spirit ; but now, in our age of scientific analysis 
and material development, this intuitive or innate faith 
demands a palpable and philosophical foundation upon 
which to base its evidences, its hopes and aspirations. 

In all ages of the world there have been slight and 
exceedingly obscure manifestations of invisible powers 
(that is, as the materialistic individual of this age 
would say, if we can repose any confidence whatever 
in the soundness and validity of human testimony) ; 
and many individuals, as well as many religious sys- 
tems of faith, have received what was believed to be 
revelations from spirits, and from superior sources — 
even from the Deity himself. " But," says the sceptical 
mind, " this may be, or may not be so ; I would like 
to hear and see for myself." Hence the demand of 
this Age, with regard to a belief in immortality or a 
future existence of the soul, is, that every doubting 



TRUTH AND MYSTERY. 17 

mind may obtain for itself a personal demonstration of 
its truth. 

It is proper to affirm, that there never has been pre- 
sented in any one era of human progress, anything like 
a clear, incontestable demonstration of spiritual presence 
and power; because Nature and Reason, dethroning 
superstition and invalidating human testimony, explain 
away many of the most astounding miracles recorded 
in sacred history, as being nothing more than new 
manifestations of immutable laws, not previously un- 
derstood, or else as being the pious fabrications of 
interested minds. Thus it is that all faith in the 
unqualifiedly supe? 3 natural is fast decaying; for no 
profound thinker — one who uniformly consults Nature 
and Reason — can for one moment admit even the 
possibility of any human or divine manifestations con- 
trary, or superior, to God's unchangeable principles 
of universal government. 

Religious education, though it inspires our affections 
with a belief in God, and in the soul's immortal exist- 
ence, is, in this intellectual age, thoroughly dissected 
and " found wanting " in its constitutional soundness 
and powers of expansion — its ingredients being, as they 
are, incomprehensible miracles and supernaturalities — 
contradicting, as they do, all experience and human 
understanding of truth, are acknowledged by nearly 



18 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

all Christendom to be unsafe conductors of our hopes 
and souls to climes which have been hitherto, upon 
the earth, comparatively uninvestigated and unknown. 
Popular science and philosophy, being almost wholly 
material and mathematically demonstrative, are ineffi- 
cient in their attempts to substitute a faith of the un- 
standing for a faith founded upon religious education, 
which is the dying faith of this age. Chemistry and 
mechanical sciences have united their powers and 
achievements to the end that railroads and magnetic 
telegraphs, and other commercial instrumentalities, 
might help on the progressive tendencies of this won- 
derful era. And the surging billows of thought and 
aspiration, flowing up from the depths of all past 
times, and swelling mountain high as they approach 
the shores of the present, threaten to overwhelm and 
destroy all monarchy and unrighteous conservatism. 
In the midst of all this commotion and materialism, 
the question involuntarily arises : u What is, in a 
religious point of view, the want of this age ? " 

In accordance with my impressions, I answer — that 
man requires a demonstration of the truth of immor- 
tality ; a sensuous evidence that the soul continues to 
exist in a physical or palpable organization subsequent 
to the event of outer dissolution. When a friend or a 
relative departs from amongst us to some invisible world, 



TRUTH AND MYSTERY. 19 

then man flees to Ills religion for eonsolation and faith ; 
but, in addition to what solace he derives from this 
source, he internally desires some substantial illustra- 
tion and evidence of the continued existence of the de- 
parted spirit. Yea, there is scarcely a Christian who 
would refuse to receive some material evidence that the 
soul lives always, — that friends and relations shall meet, 
and recognize, and love each other again, in another 
world, as on the earth. Indeed, such evidence would 
impart a palpability and an enthusiastic zeal to his con- 
ceptions of a future life, — so absolute and strong as to 
convert him to the joys and blessings of a new religious 
faith based upon a system of universal philosophy. 
Some men do not know (and those who do know, will 
lot, dare not, even to themselves, acknowledge) how ex- 
ceedingly sceptical they are concerning the soul's ever- 

asting life and the existence of a spirit-world. About 
ive-eiglitlis of the Protestant clergy are, in the secret 
consciousness of their own minds, perfect materialists 
vith regard to faith in spiritual existence ; and yet they 

reach " life and immortality-," in combination with 

ther cardinal points in the existing theology, because 
preaching is their occupation, and because, also, they do 

ot know of anything better and more elevating to pro- 

laim to the people. 
As one evidence of the truthfulness of this assertion, 



20 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIEITTTAL INTEECOUESE. 

let it be remembered that the strongest advocates of 
those miracles which are said to have occurred centuries 
ago (there being no other proof than human testimony 
that they ever were performed), are minds who will not 
give any credence to the no less wondrous miracles 
which are of almost daily occurrence in our very midst. 
So, likewise, the professed strong believers in spiritual 
existences are v the first to denounce any belief in them, 
miless based upon the popular foundation of past tradi- 
tions. In truth, almost every Christian who makes a 
practice of exercising " private judgment " on religious 
subjects (though such, is acknowledged to be the foun- 
dation of Protestantism), would like to see, in order to 
believe in, those miracles which the sacred historians 
have recorded on their pages as faithful accounts of 
mysterious occurrences in days bygone. In fact, there 
are comparatively but very few minds who enjoy un- 
disturbed confidence in the validity of those accounts ; 
and the unanimous voice of all Christendom is, " We 
will believe in miracles when we see them y show us 
spirits, and we will believe in their existence ! n 



GOD'S UNIVERSAL PROVIDENCE. 



God expands himself so perfectly throughout all na- 
ture, and breathes the heavenly principles of his own 
constitution so unchangeably into every department of 
his universe, that not even the least thing can properly 
complain, of any inattention in all the vast empire of 
animated existence. God's providence, like his divine 
essence, is universal ! It embraces the whole, and, 
hence, also the parts. There is no special interference 
of Deity in the operations of Nature, of which man is 
a portion ; but God governs and controls everything 
with an unwavering government, — and, with what un- 
utterable perfection ! Behold, the bird has its provi- 
sions of air, and food, and clothing, — all adapted to the 
temperature of the climate in which it lives, and to its 
little mission in the order of nature ! See, how means 
are adapted to ends ! The eye to light ; the ear to 
sounds ; the tongue to speech ; the soul to thought and 
heavenly sentiments. Verily, there are no desires with- 
out their appropriate gratifications ; no demands with- 
out their proper supplies. This is surely a law of ex- 



22 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

istence, — an unmistakable and magnificent feature in 
the universal and perfect providence of Deity. If you 
thirst physically, go to the health-giving spring ; if spir- 
itually thirsty, go to the great, inexhaustible fountain 
of Truth. If your bodies hunger for food, go seek 
Nature's luxuriant and wholesome provisions ; her larder 
is never without the appropriate articles of nourishment. 
If your spirits call for spiritual food, then seek ye first 
the " kingdom of God and its righteousness," and all 
the rest shall be added unto you. Thus, too, are we 
blessed in the affections of our nature. We have no 
loves which have not their objects ; no feelings which 
have not their friendships ; no affinities without ulti- 
mate destinations ! We want water, and there is water ; 
we want food, and there is food ; we want love, and 
there is love ; we want immortality, and there is im- 
mortality ; we want a God, and there is a God ! 
And such is the perfection and unchaugeability of this 
great law of universal adaptation, that it is perfectly 
safe and reasonable to affirm, and «,lso to expect, that 
when man wants miracles he will assuredly find them ; 
when he wants to see, and hear, and converse with spir- 
itual beings, he may rest satisfied in the belief that his 
desire has, somewhere in the great providential allot- 
ments of God's immutable laws its complete and appro- 
priate gratification ! 



god's universal providence. 



23 



Undoubtedly, the religious want of this age has its 
proper supply. It is an age of sensuous investigation 
the earth's inhabitants desire, and will only believe in, 
xternal and superficial things ; hence there are ade- 
uate means adapted to the accomplishment of higher 
nds — to the development of an age of spiritual inves- 
igation — when the general mind will desire, and will 
lace its affections upon those things only which are in- 
erior and permanent ! Now, let me not be misappre- 
Lended. I say this age wants miracle, and there is 
uiracle ; it wants sensuous demonstrations of the truth 
f immortality, and there are sensuous demonstrations ! 
:>ut I do not regard these undeniable manifestations as 
be result of any special plan among the inhabitants of 
e spheres, nor as an act of special legislation or provi- 
ence on the part of the Divine Mind ; nor am I irn- 
ressed to connect the spiritual manifestations of this 
ge with any occurrences of an analogous complexion 
id character which may have been developed in ages 
ast. I am not unconscious, however, of the vast provi- 
ential scheme which seems to begin with the origin of 
an and to run parallel with his physical and spiritual 
^ogress and development up to the present hour ; but 
am not impressed to attempt the useless task of prov- 
g the possibilities or probabilities of spiritual mani- 
stations in this period of the world, by analytically 



24 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

tracing, through the wandering mazes of all past times 
and generations, the correspondential or seemingly simi- 
lar developments of spiritual power and design. A 
grand scheme of providential acts and dispensations 
can be elaborated from existing materials ; the stages, 
and features, and phases — the links in the chain of all 
oriental and legendary accounts of supernatural mani- 
festations — can be, with much trouble and woful per- 
plexity, discovered, and delineated, and reduced to that 
order and system which should characterize a science ; 
but, after all, would it be a science ? Who would know % 
Who could tell ? Suppose it were a science, what would 
be its utility % — what its application ? We may, in the 
course of this investigation, disclose the whole law and 
mystery of all spiritual manifestations, and furnish also 
an explanation of Salem Witchcraft and of all analo- 
gous exhibitions of mental delirium or of spiritual 
power ; but would the same explanation serve to solve 
the problem of Mahomet's assertion, that he " travelled 
through ninety heavens in one night " % Or, would it 
psychologically explain the particular causes why St. 
John had so wonderful a dream on the Isle of Patmos ? 
Or, why the good Paul had a vision so superlatively su-l 
perb and heavenly as to defy all attempts at expression, 
and, hence, to " utter " it would have been " unlawful," 
or, more properly, unreasonable ? Yea, the following. 



god's univeesal peovidence. 25 

explanation of existing wonders in this department of 
human inquiry may, and I believe it will, be found to 
cover the whole field occupie'd by the above-mentioned 
occurrences, as well as other similar mysterious events 
recorded in history ; but suppose or admit this exposi- 
tion of Nature's laws and phenomena to extend so far 
— what then ? Are we made intellectually wealthier by 
an explanation of those oriental and uncertain traditions 
or relations of supernatural occurrences? Nay! the 
mind grows unhealthy wandering in the bewildering 
labyrinths of the uncertain Past, and mystery more and 
more veils its perceptions, till it loses itself in those un- 
cultured wilds, whence it must wearily retrace its foot- 
steps to the Present to seek the true solution of now- 
existing marvels and of constantly-developing phe- 
nomena ; which will alone benefit mankind and conduct 
the investigating soul, not hack into the dreary wastes of 
bygone ages, but beyond into the bright, dazzling, glo- 
rious spheres where Love and Wisdom flow like rivers 
of living water ! 

While I do not strive to manufacture, so to speak, 
from out of all past psychological wonders and spiritual 
revealments, a system of inspiration, which the world 
might or might not receive as true ; nevertheless, I feel 
deeply impressed with the conviction, that whatever 
principles will explain the phenomena of clairvoyance, 



26 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

(or spiritual insight,) and the modus operandi of spirit- 
ual communications through sounds or otherwise, occur- 
ing in this era of human history, will also explain all 
events of a similar character which have occurred in all 
ages of the world. In taking a retrospective view of 
the religious history and experience of mankind, the 
contemplative mind cannot but recognize a peculiar and 
almost perfect adaptation of all laws and revelations to 
the existing social and intellectual conditions and re- 
quirements of the race. Every so-called revealment of 
the Divine Will, and every code of social and political 
laws that were instituted and supposed to be an expres- 
sion of the methods of Divine Government, are re- 
garded by most Christians as undeniable evidences of 
special acts and providential dispensations on the part 
of the Infinite God. Because, as it is alleged, those re- 
vealments and codes were particularly adapted to the 
social and political wants, and to the spiritual or relig- 
ious necessities, of the age in which they were obtained. 
Thus it is generally supposed, that the " new dispensa- 
tion" beginning with the preaching and miracles of 
Jesus, was not begun with Moses in consequence of the 
state of unpreparedness in which mankind were exist- 
ing at the time when Moses lived ; and, therefore, that 
the " old dispensation " was especially and perfectly 
adapted to the government and spiritual well-being of 



god's universal peovidence. 27 

man up to the birth of Christ, at which event, it is said, 
the Mosaic dispensation expired. This hypothesis has 
for its foundation a belief in the special action and in- 
terference of God, as indicated in the social and spiritual 
government of the human race. And here let me re- 
mark, that very many intelligent and highly accomp- 
lished individuals — men who have discovered the erro- 
neous opinions and superstitions of past times — are 
unconsciously gliding into an opinion or a belief no less 
superstitious with regard to the magnetic miracles and 
spiritual communications of the present day. Surely, 
it is neither progression nor wisdom to exchange one 
form of religious superstition for another ! 

It is manifestly unrighteous to impute the establish- 
ment of " old " or " new " orders and dispensations to 
the special providence of God, because it is absolutely 
the result of an erroneous method of philosophical 
reasoning. It is reasoning thus : when a tree is in the 
twig state it is not prepared for the bearing of fruit, 
and, therefore, God procrastinates the bestowment of it 
until the tree has acquired sufficient strength to sustain 
the weight thereof ; then he prepares, and attaches to 
the spreading boughs, such fruit as in his wisdom he 
may ordain the tree to bear. But true reasoning would 
be this : the tree does not bear fruit while in its twig 
state, because it has not yet arrived at the culminating 



28 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

or fruit-bearing point in its development. So, like- 
wise, it is only proper to say, that mankind display 
simply ichat they are capable of developing. The 
u new dispensation " was not unfolded in the Mosaic 
era, because the race could not have then developed it ; 
but like a tree, mankind put forth just those conditions, 
just that code of laws and system of political and spirit- 
ual government, which its stage of general development 
could in that age accomplish, — and nothing more ! 
If Moses had been as perfect in his physical and spir- 
itual constitution as Jesus evidently was in his, then the 
political code and sacred commandments of the" former 
would necessarily have resembled more closely the 
charming and refining revealments of the latter. But 
as the two personages were organized in their bodies 
and minds, so were their respective disclosures. This 
truth is easily seen. " An eye for an eye," and blood 
for blood, is a jurisprudential enactment which ex- 
presses the revengeful feelings of Moses and of the rudi- 
mental age in which he lived ; whilst, " Love ye one 
another," and "forgive your enemies," speaks sweetly 
from the soul of Jesus at a more advanced and pro- 
gressed period. There is no confounding these person- 
ages. Moses, beinor educated according to the methods 
and tendencies of his age, declared precisely what his 
material and spiritual organization and state of mental 



god's universal providence. 29 

illumination would suggest : and so with Jesus ! The 
one tree put forth its twigs and branches ; whilst the 
other blossomed, and by its rich perfume gave promise 
of fruit in still riper ages. This was accomplished by 
no special action and interposition of the Divine Mind, 
but by the legitimate progressive development of their 
own respective constitutions. When the race is far 
advanced in social and intellectual culture, its govern- 
ment is no longer Jewish, neither is it monarchical, 
hierarchical, or autocratical, but it unfolds the sublimer 
and more holy elements of man's nature, and the govern- 
ment is, or will be, Republican, manifesting distributive 
Justice, Goodness, Truth, Accord, Peace, and Unity. 
In the lower stages of mental growth, " an eye for an 
eye " is the characteristic impulse of individuals and 
the mode of government. Action and reaction are 
natural to that phase of individual development. But 
in the higher stages of mental growth, the heavenly 
principles of " Love ye one another " — " forgive your 
enemies " — are the methods adopted whereby to live, to 
govern, and to punish. And righteous action is the in- 
tuitive impulse consequent upon a high state of physical 
and moral culture. 

The bearing of these remarks on the subject of spir- 
itual communications, will be more 'readily perceived 
by those minds who regard the wonderful developments 



30 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

of modern times as the particular manifestations of 
Divine will and design. I have said that this age 
wants miracle, and there is miracle ; that it wants a 
palpable and sensuous demonstration of the truths of 
immortality, and there is such demonstration ; but I do 
not mean to impress any mind with the belief that 
these developments are especially sent by God to the 
earth's inhabitants. » Nay ; it is the opposite conviction, 
the truth of which I desire to establish, that the mira- 
cles and spiritual disclosures of this era flow naturally 
and consequently from the state of mental and moral 
development to which the Anglo-Saxon portion of the 
human race has generally attained. If this view of 
these things be not valid and entertained — if men do 
not consult Nature and Reason, and " try the spirits " 
by the rigid righteousness of those immutable princi- 
ples which control harmoniously everything in the vast 
domain of terrestrial and celestial existences — then, 
there cannot be any limits set to the wild fanaticism 
and superstitious absurdities into which the honest 
seekers after truth and spirituality will assuredly 
plunge themselves, to the discredit and subversion of 
all that is beautiful and saving (from discord and error) 
in the new and Harmonial Philosophy ! If Truth is 
our aim — our prayer and aspiration — let us seek it for 
its own sake ! " If man," says James Yictor Wilson, 



god's universal providence. 31 

" has too little truth, he is anxious — he is seeking ; and 
if truth is all he desires, he finds it ; but should he 
seek truth not for truth's sake, but for the sake of estab- 
lishing an opinion or hypothesis, then is he discontented 
and unhappy." And he very impressively adds: 
" This perverted motive sometimes actuates the misdi- 
rected inhabitants of earth; but it never moves the 
residents of the celestial empire." 

From the foregoing reflection, it will be very readily 
inferred that I am not impressed to regard any mani- 
festations, of a super-sensuous character, as being above, 
contrary to, or inconsistent with, Nature's immutable 
and universal principles ; that I do not believe in the 
existence of any miracles which are not referable to 
natural causes, visible or invisible ; nor in the possibility 
of any strictly supernatural events, ancient or modern ; 
because the Divine Mind cannot act in opposition to 
the eternally established laws of his own constitution, of 
which all the visible universe is a transcript, or an out- 
ward manifestation. And when I say, that, to supply 
the want of this age, there are miracles and spiritual 
demonstrations developed in our midst, I do not mean 
that anything, which is thus vouchsafed to man, is 
above, or contrary to, or inconsistent with, human na- 
ture and its inherent capabilities ; but that man, on the 
earth, has now arrived at a stage of intellectual and 



32 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

moral development which unfolds these very wonderful 
things, which alike amaze and confound the unpre- 
pared, as well as the believing, individual. And as 
a period arrived when Christopher Columbus launched 
forth on the sea of speculation, (for such the Atlantic 
was to him,) and persevered without trepidation in his 
voyage, even to the discovery of the fertile shores of 
our own beautiful America; so, now, has the period 
arrived when the aspiring spirit of man can soar far, 
far away into the gorgeous realms of the Orbed-Infini- 
tude, and discover that more glorious world — the spirit- 
land — those brighter homes of holy and happy beings ! 
And the latter is no more of a miracle than the former. 
If the discovery of the Spirit Land be called a miracle 
and disbelieved, on the ground that it contradicts all 
human experience ; then let it be remembered that the 
discovery of America, prior to the voyage of Columbus, 
was also contrary to all human experience. The one 
cannot more justly be called a miracle than the other; 
though the former is a revelation of much greater mag- 
nitude, importance, and grandeur. 



THE MIRACLES OF THIS AGE. 



To dwell upon the many and wonderful miracles 
characteristic of this age would not be consistent with 
the structure and object of this chapter. It is well, 
however, to remark that what is termed animal or 
human magnetism, is particularly and especially the 
grand element eugaged in developing those miracles. 
And it is very safe and truthful to allege this unseen, 
and as yet to many minds mysterious influence to be the 
principle of " virtue " which Jesus sometimes felt " go 
out " of him at the moment of performing miraculous 
cures among the sick and disabled. But the most won- 
derful, beautiful, and momentous miracle of all mira- 
cles, consists in the development of those intellectual 
Dowers and spiritual perceptions in man's immortal 
soul, whereby the spirit-land has been discovered and 

ts vast possessions explored. And I would notice still 
mother miracle — a " Jacob's ladder," composed of mag- 
letism and electricity, erected in this age, planted on 

arth and reaching into Heaven, upon which angels 
iescend and ascend, bringing "tidings of great joy" to 



34 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

man, and imparting to him a knowledge of those great 
truths which belong to an immortal and progressive ex- 
istence. But the erection of this ladder cannot be of 
much importance or profit to him who does not under- 
stand the philosophical foundation upon which it rests, 
and who is ignorant of the laws which sustain it. 
Though the mind may have been awakened from the 
deep sleep of scepticism — aroused therefrom by a 
" spiritual sound " — to behold, for the first time, the 
vast horizon of a new world of realities ; yet unless that 
mind can obtain a clear, consistent, and natural expla- 
nation of how and why those sounds are made, all mere 
faith in them is as uncertain and fluctuating as the 
sand upon the sea-shore. Let us strive, therefore, to 
" enter in at the strait gate " which leads to the attain- 
ment of wisdom and knowledge ; for the " broad road " 
of undefined faith and reckless enthusiasm, is certain 
to conduct the traveller into the realms of anxiety and 
dissatisfaction; and a complete "destruction" of all 
faith in spirituality and in heavenly things, will be the 
almost inevitable consequence of persistence in such a 
course. Let us all, therefore, be able to give a reason 
for the hope within. 

I will now proceed to lay before the reader's open 
understanding the results of my interior observations 
and critical examination of the phenomena unfolded 



THE MIRACLES OF THIS AGE. 35 

by what lias been termed "spirit manifestations" — 
" mysterious noises " — " spirit rappings," etc., with 
which the public is already more or less familiar. It is 
not, however, to be supposed that I shall attempt to fur- 
nish my readers with a detailed historical account of all 
the communications, and strange occurrences, which are 
claimed to have originated with spiritual beings ; be- 
cause the object of this interior examination is, to ascer- 
tain and place before the reader, a generalization of all 
the truth which, in substance, has come to man through 
the medium of these new developments. This object, I 
am impressed, can be better accomplished by stating 
a manifestation as it externally appeared to the mate- 
rial senses, and then relating the interior or hidden 
causes thereof as revealed to the spiritual senses of the 
writer. To render plain and distinct the relations 
which subsist between spiritual or invisible causes, and 
material or visible effects, I will carefully explain the 
causes of every event or circumstance of a mysterious 
or spiritual character with which I am impressed. 

About the middle of June, 1850, an intelligent gen- 
tleman, from Ohio, sought the three ladies, as mediums, 
who were then sojourning in New York, for the pur- 
pose of obtaining a spiritual communication. A circle 
of ladies and gentlemen, about ten in number, were 
already formed around the table, under and upon 



36 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

which the sounds were apparently made. The gentle- 
man joined the circle, and, on inquiring whether " any 
spirit would communicate with him," the sounds were 
directly heard loud and quite enthusiastically rapid. 
" Will the spirit spell its name % " he asked. And there 
was no sound. Taking the suggestion of another person 
in the circle, he inquired — "If I write a column of 
names, will the spirit rap when I write, or point my 
pencil to, the right one?" To this he received an 
affirmative reply. And when Tie wrote the name of a 
deceased daughter ? the response was made! Again 
the same gentleman, anxious to obtain more evidence 
that the communication was in reality what it purported 
to be, namely, a revelation from the spirit-world, in- 
quired — 

" Will any other spirit communicate with me ? " and 
distinct sounds indicated a willing compliance. Again 
the gentleman wrote, and when he traced his son's 
name, a quick response was given, — differing so dis- 
tinctly in sound and location from the reply of his 
daughter, as to make it easy to discriminate between 
the two. 

The father was excited even to tears ; in his joy, he 
wept ! His thoughts were at once drawn from the 
lonely churchyard where he in grief had seen the loved 
ones laid away from him in the cold earth. His chil- 



THE MIRACLES OF THIS AGE. 



37 



dren were with him again ! Death died in an instant ; 
and the parent was not bereft ! He spoke to his own, 
and his own answered him. Their conversation was in 
substance as follows, the replies to the questions being 
spelled out by alphabet through the sounds : 

" Are you happy ? " 

" Yes ! " 

" Do you visit me sometimes ? " 

" Dear father, we are always with you ! " 

" Do you love music as you did when on the earth ? 
and can you indulge in that delight where you now 
are?" 

" Yes ! " and here a tune was rapped out by them to- 
gether, as they had been in the habit of accompanying 
each other when in this world. 

"Do you desire to have me with you where you 
are?" 

"Not yet!" 

" Would you like to return to earth ? " 

" No ! this is a happy world ! " 

The above interview was invested with peculiar and 
intense interest; for many gloomy and erroneous 
thoughts associated with death, and concerning the 
realities of the "world beyond the grave," had fre- 
quently overshadowed and bewildered the brighter 
hopes and contemplations of the father; and those 



38 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

thoughts were, on this very impressive occasion, swept 
away ; his hopes, no longer obscured, were converted 
iuto blissful realities, and already he had met his 
children on the threshold of the spirit-land. 

This was a true and beautiful specimen of many, 
very many, spiritual communications of like nature 
which have emanated from the future home of the soul. 
And it is for this reason — it being an impressive illus- 
tration of numerous instances similar to what the reader 
may have obtained through the sounds, or seen reported 
in public prints — that I am impressed to select it as the 
basis of an explanation. But here let it be remembered 
that I am writing, not what from time to time I have 
witnessed of these things while in my ordinary state — 
beholding them at these times, like other minds, only 
with my outward organs of perception — but what I now 
relate is obtained from a very recent interior retrospec- 
tion of the whole field occupied by these mysterious 
phenomena, commencing with their birth and following 
them through their subsequent developments. 

At this present, I have learned for the first time, by 
an interior and particular investigation, that those 
u raps " were in very truth caused by the spirits of that 
father's son and daughter. It is a great truth, that the 
inhabitants of the second sphere can, and do, at times, 
communicate their thoughts and sentiments to the in- 



THE MIKACLES OF THIS AGE. 39 

habitants of the earth. Probably I have more personal 
and practical evidence — more internal and unmistakable 
demonstration — of this consoling and elevating truth 
than the reader (unless, indeed, his own spiritual per- 
ceptions have revealed these interior realities to his un- 
derstanding) can wholly comprehend and appreciate ; 
and I therefore expect him to seek substantial evidence 
for himself in every possible direction. For wdiat is 
evidence to me, cannot be demonstration to another; 
and I say, there fore, " let every one be fully persuaded 
in his own mind " of the truth of these things ; then 
there will be no room for scepticism, especially if our 
persuasion or faith (rather knowledge) is based upon 
the everlasting foundation of nature and reason. 

The father above alluded to could not see his chil- 
dren :' but they responded when he wrote their names, 
and that was sufficient demonstration for him — he was 
perfectly and pleasurably satisfied ! But was his faith 
well-grounded \ Suppose that, from the silent medita- 
tion of his happiness, occasioned by the sweet commu- 
nication he had but just enjoved, a sceptic should 
suddenly arouse him, and ask, " What evidence had you 
that those were your children responding \ " The father 
would doubtless start up and answer, " I do not ques- 
tion it ; I am satisfied ! " But let him go out into the 
world, and encounter all the opposition which existing 



40 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

materialism and supernatural theology openly manifest 
towards new developments, and he will soon acknowl- 
edge that all the evidence which he received that his 
children were really communicating with him, consisted 
in some vibratory sounds being made when he wrote 
their names. Now, unless he be a man well versed in 
the philosophy of the soul's constitution and immortality 
— having a knowledge of how the human spirit is or- 
ganized, and how it can communicate with other and 
congenial spirits — it is almost certain that the perplex- 
ing interrogations put by positively sceptical minds will 
eventually succeed in dissipating from the father's affec- 
tions and judgment the beautiful, truthful, and soul- 
expanding conviction, that his children really spoke to 
him from higher spheres. Nor, without a philosophical 
comprehension of the subject of spiritual intercourse, 
could his faith withstand the discovery of counterfeit 
communications. In truth, without the requisite amount 
of philosophical knowledge, his faith could be rendered 
" sure and steadfast " only by continual additional 
evidence, in the form ^f miracle; because miracle, and 
not philosophy, was the original cause, and would con- 
tinue to be the foundation, of his beautiful conviction. 

Now I am impressed to regard such a miracle as 
being valuable in two ways : first, as an effect, that ad- 
monishes the beholder, and him who hears, to acquaint 



THE MIRACLES OF THIS AGE. 41 

his mind with the great philosophy of causes ; and, 
second, I regard it as an illustration and an intimation 
of some grand truth, or principle, in the great system 
of the material and spiritual universe, with which the 
true philosopher has already familiarized his mind to 
considerable extent. The spiritual communication 
above related, is to me, I repeat, a beautiful illustration 
of a sublime and world-revolutionizing philosophy ; but, 
to many individuals — to the vast majority of intellects 
— it is but an astounding effect of some hidden and 
mvsterious causes which the material senses cannot 
recognize or worldly reason comprehend. For the latter 
class of individuals, especially, do I design this analyti- 
cal investigation. 

Let us now proceed. I have said that the sounds 
were really produced by the spirit-children, with whom 
the father held converse. But the question now arises, 
" Upon what principles or conditions are spiritual com- 
munications made \ " Interior perception enables me to 
reply, that, in the first place, a good moral or intellectual 
state is not a p?*erequisite condition on the part of the 
individual or individuals who constitute the medium for 
electrical intercourse with spiritual beings. This, at 
the first glance, seems a strange inconsistency. But 
when we consider that the spirits who communicate to 
the earth's inhabitants, in this electrical manner, do not, 



42 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

as a general principle, allow their thoughts to flow into 
the mind of the medium, and thence, by pronunciation, 
to the individual with whom they discourse ; but, on the 
contrary, that the spirits impart what they desire to com- 
municate through electrical vibrations, alphabetically — 
I say, when we consider all this, it ceases to be a mys- 
terious inconsistency that good moral and intellectual 
conditions are not required. If the spiritual communi- 
cations were made through the mind of the medium, 
as through spiritually illuminated seers, prophets, and 
clairvoyants, then constitutional harmony, combined 
with fine moral and intellectual sensibilities and ten- 
dencies, would be the indispensable conditions ; but, as 
the conversation above referred to was not conducted 
through the mediatorial agency of a subject of spiritual 
insight, the mind must seek in other directions for an 
appropriate and adequate explanation of the causes of the 
phenomena. In a word, we must necessarily conclude 
that so far as the medium (or person) is concerned, some 
physical condition is alone required. And this is true. 
There was at the time of the above referred to commu- 
nication, which was held by the father with his chil- 
dren, an emanation of vital electricity from the physical 
systems of the young ladies (who were the medium), 
and the intense interest experienced by the entire circle 
caused each person present to contribute largely to the 



THE MIEACLES OF THIS AGE. 43 

general electric atmosphere. The most exquisitely con- 
structed electrometer is not capable of detecting the 
presence of this organic electricity ; it is so exceedingly 
refined and attenuated. It is a species of spiritual ex- 
halation — an emanation of the inferior elements of the 
spiritual principle — which, when the mind is constantly 
and vigorously exercised, is rapidly drawn to the cere- 
brum to sustain the mental action ; but, in the absence 
of deep mental activity, these electrical elements flow 
down from the brain into the nerves, and into all the 
infinite ramifications of the nerves, and thence into the 
iitmosphere which we breathe. Whenever the minds of 
he mediums were unduly excited, the sounds, and con- 
equently the spiritual communications, would suddenly 
;ease ; because cerebral excitement caused the brain 
o absorb those elements which, when no mental agi- 
ation existed, readily flowed into the proper external 
auditions for spiritual communication. 

That the conditions and principles upon which spirits 
mswer, in this manner, to the inquiries of man, are 
im pie and physical, philosophical and rational, can be 
lemonstrated to the candid and enlarged understanding; 
)ecause those conditions are no more complicated or 
vonderful than the principles upon which the magnetic 
elegraph is daily operating along our great commercial 
Lvenues. And here I am impressed to introduce the 



44 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

language of one wliose thoughts flowed readily into the 
truthful channel, while meditating upon the philosophy 
of spiritual intercourse, through the electrical sounds.* 
Pie says 

" In order to perceive the analogy between the mode 
of communicating between the spiritual and the natu- 
ral worlds by electrical rappings, and the mode of com- 
municating between distant places by magnetic tele- 
graph, let it first be understood that each created thing 
sustains certain electrical relations to all other things ; 
that all higher forms of development sustain positive re- 
lations to all lower forms — as the vegetable to the mineral, 
the animal to the vegetable, and man to all the lower 
kingdoms in nature. Ascending still further in the 
scale of progression, the rule will hold good ; and hence 
it is evident that the spirit-world sustains a positive 
electrical relation to the natural world, of which it is a 
higher form — a further and more perfect development. 
When spirits leave the body, the transition causes them 
no loss of intelligence or power. On the contrary, as 
©very step in their history while in the body is marked 
by that law of progression which develops knowledge 
and power inexact ratio with the refinement of the spirit 
it is reasonable to suppose that their power over the 
refined elements in nature, and their knowledge of the 



* 



Apollos Munn, Editor of the Messenger, Springfield, Mass. 



. 



THE MIRACLES OF THIS AGE. 45 

laws that govern them, will be greatly increased by their 
immediate assimilation with the refinement and knowl- 
edge which pervade the second sphere of human exist- 
ence. They cannot, it is true, come in immediate contact 
with gross substances ; but they can and do act upon them 
with powerful effect, through the agency of magnetism 
and electricity. Thus it cannot be disputed, admitting 
that the spirit progresses hereafter, that the inhabitants 
of the spirit-world have the power when -natural condi- 
tions are complied with, to communicate electrically 
with their friends in the body. When nature, by her 
constant movements towards the refinement of matter, 
develops mediums through which communications can 
be made, the spirits will be found ready to respond to 
our desires. These mediums are sometimes furnished 
by certain localities, usually designated as " haunted 
houses," where the electricity, from certain causes, has 
become so rare and refined that spirits can there mani- 
fest their presence and power in various ways. The 
young ladies of the Fox family, and hundreds of other 
individuals, through whom the spirits communicate, are 
mediums, because the electrical atmosphere which em- 
anates from their systems contains hut little gross 
electricity. The spirits sustaining a positive relation to 
us, are enabled through these mediums or conductors, 
to attract and move articles of furniture, vibrate the 



46 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTEECOUESE. 

wires of a musical instrument, and, by discharging by 
the power of their wills currents of magnetism, they 
can and do produce rappings, like the magnetic tele- 
graph, corresponding to letters of the alphabet." 

There are many individuals, who, though not parti- 
cularly moral or intellectual, can perform various and 
wonderful feats of muscular action and power. And 
so it is with the mediums ; so far as they are concerned, 
in the production of true spiritual sounds, their systems 
may be regarded as muscles whereby the spirits mani- 
fest their presence and intentions. The vital electricity 
which emanates from the negative physical system of 
the medium, may be regarded as a receptacle for the 
influx of that spiritual electricity which the spirits, by 
an exercise of their will-power, discharge in straight 
lines to the location where they intend the sounds, or 
electrical vibrations, shall be heard by the circle of 
friends on earth. 

Another circle of believers and sceptics, on the day 
following that when the conversation I have already re- 
lated occurred, were seated around the same table, and 
earnestly soliciting spiritual communications ; but the 
weather was exceedingly warm and debilitating, and the 
young ladies were mentally agitated in consequence of 
some slight displeasurable remark made by one of the 
audience, and the sounds were not heard. After several 



THE MIKACLES OF THIS AGE. 47 

unsuccessful efforts to induce the phenomena of the 
" rappings," one of the individuals present queried thus: 
" If there be such a thing as spiritual manifestations, I 
do not understand why they are not made when we are 
so anxious for them." And soon, though not in answer 
to the gentleman's query, but from other causes, the 
sounds commenced. And here, before I proceed to re- 
late the conversation with the spirits, which followed, I 
desire to explain why the manifestations are sometimes 
not made when they are anxiously solicited. I have 
said that a good physical condition, and not necessarily 
a moral one, is particularly required. But this condi- 
tion can be altered or vitiated, so to speak, by mental 
agitation and positive anxiety. Yital electricity is ex- 
haled from the spiritual principle, through the nervous 
system, in great abundance, whenever the mind is per- 
fectly passive — when all is still and tranquil within the 
chambers of thought — and when no emotions or anx- 
ieties swell the soul, and cause it to absorb the atmos- 
pherical emanations which naturally surround the outer 
form. An anxious state is a positive state, wmich is 
highly unfavorable to spiritual influx, either into the 
receptive vessels of the mind, or into the vital-electrical 
medium, or atmosphere, which is the pre-requisite con- 
dition through which the sounds are made. Moreover, 
the exceedingly warm weather is unfavorable to this 



48 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

electrical emanation. The excessive heat causes a kind 
of exhaustion, or rather it dilutes the vigor of the me- 
diatorial elements which unite the physical organization 
of spirits to that which man possesses. And not till 
the attention of the circle of minds was withdrawn 
from the intense desire for manifestations— their too 
anxious feelings being exhausted by the conviction that 
no communications would be received during that ses- 
sion — and when the more quieted condition of the me- 
diums permitted, and not till then, could the sounds be 
made. The conversation now proceeded, and a gentle- 
man inquired : 

" Is my guardian angel present % " 

~No answer. 

" Is my brother here ? " was then asked by a lady. 

"Yes." 

" Will he give me a test by which I may know that 
it is him ? " 

" Yes." And according to the method which had 
been adopted by many individuals, she wrote down a 
column of names, including that of her brother, and 
then pointing with her pencil to each one, she said, " Is 
this his name ? Is this it ? " and so on, in order, till she 
came to the right one, and immediately the sounds were 
heard. She then inquired : 



THE MIRACLES OF THIS AGE. 49 

"Will my brother tell me what bis age was when he 
departed this life ? " 

" Yes ! " the spirit replied. And when she wrote the 
correct age, the response was quickly given. She again 
inquired : 

"Will my brother tell me the name of the place 
where he was when his spirit left his body ? " 

" Tes ! " 

She then audibly pronounced the names of different 
villages and cities, and at the right place the sounds 
distinctlv indicated an affirmative. 

Again the lady asked, " Have you any message for 
our father and mother, or for our sisters at home ? " 

" Tes ! " replied the spirit, by sounds ; and the signal 
for the alphabet being given, the following sentence 
was spelled out : 

" Tell mother and sister" (correctly spelling the 
name of one in particular,) " that lam happy, and want 
them to come here and communicate with me" 

Following this, there were several other communica- 
tions, each glowing with intense interest, especially for 
those to whom the messages and responses were made. 
And here it is well to observe, that private messages, 
though the most convincing of any received, are seldom 
published to the world. 

I have been impressed to record the above intercourse 



50 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL LNTEECOUESE. 

as the basis of an explanation of another apparently in- 
explicable mystery connected with this mode of spiritual 
communication. The lady, while conversing, doubtless 
believed that the spirit of her brother was somewhere in 
that room. It was doubtless pleasant for her to think 
him so near, all unattractive as was the locality of their 
meeting — there, in a heated, close, and crowded room, 
in the midst of all the bustle and confusion of a large 
hotel, situated in a* discordant and noisy city, and im- 
pregnated with the unwholesome atmosphere of many 
human breaths — it was not a place where we should 
wish to invite a spirit from heavenly spheres. But I 
find that almost every person whose mind has been 
deeply impressed with the truth of spiritual intercourse, 
is more or less imbued with the conviction that spirits 
are always in our .immediate presence when communi- 
cating ; and by our misunderstanding of them, the 
spirits are sometimes supposed to affirm it themselves, 
as in those instances where it is so often at the circles 
asked of them, " Do you visit me sometimes ? " or, " Will 
you visit me in my room to-night % " or, " Are you near 
me ? " and the sounds will, by the letters of the alpha- 
bet, spell out in reply, " We are always with you ? " or, 
" Yes, I will come to your room ! " or, " I stand by your 
side?" 

Now it is well for the reader to understand that, not- 



■^— ^— — — 



THE MIRACLES OF THIS AGE. 51 

withstanding the apparent annihilation of time and 
space to the immortal soul, there is still time to be con- 
sumed, and space to be traversed in the spirit-land. 
Time passes into eternity, and space into infinity, just 
as the dew-drop is apparently lost in the ocean ; but as 
the drop of water is not destroyed in the sea, so is there 
no annihilation of either time or space. Hence the 
Spirit-World has a fixed locality ; has magnitudes and 
proportions ; has qualities and properties ; has system 
and arrangement ; has axis, diameters, and revolutions ; 
has a sun and a firmament ; has evenings and mornings, 
or periods of repose and action among its inhabitants ; 
has its position fixed in the mighty multitude of solar 
systems or universes which roll in the depths of immen- 
sity ! But I will not now dwell upon the magnificent 
truths which unfold before me (I refer the reader, 
who would follow me in these investigations, to forth- 
coming volumes of " The Great Ilarmonia ") ; but here I 
desire to distinctly impress each mind with the truth of 
this distinction, that Heaven is a Condition, but the 
Sj)irit-la?id is a Locality. You may be harmoniously 
situated, you may be happy, {or in heaven^) in the low- 
liest cottage, or in the fields of nature ; but you cannot 
be in the spirit-land, (or in spheres beyond this,) unless 
you undergo a partial or complete change in the rela- 
tions which now subsist between your soul and body. 



52 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTEECOUESE. 

Therefore, when a spirit-brother, or any spirit, desires 
to visit some dear one on earth over whom it lovingly 
watches, it is permitted the gratification of doing so, on 
condition that harmony be established between it and 
the principle of spiritual gravitation. But there is time 
consumed and space traversed in the process of accom- 
plishing such a visitation. 

Almost every one knows the comparative speed of 
the different commercial instrumentalities of our age. 
The steamboat travels faster than the sloop, the locomo- 
tive faster than the steamboat, and the electricity on 
the telegraph wires travels faster than the locomotive ; 
and, to continue the comparison, the human spirit 
travels faster than electricity, but yet, except in a com- 
parative sense, there is no annihilation of time or space 
— no destruction of any portion of Eternity or Infinity ! 
True, it is impossible to appreciate the existence of any 
time or space between two cities, eighty English miles 
apart, when conversing through the agency of the mag- 
netic telegraph ; so, also, it is impossible to appreciate 
any time or distance' between two friends, ten thousand 
miles or more apart, when conversing through the 
agency of spiritual insight or illumination, or even 
when communicating through the more inferior and 
rudimental mode of spiritual intercourse, through the | 
instrumentality of sounds. This is a truth which I 



THE MIRACLES CF TIIIS AGE. 53 

have repeatedly seen illustrated. When a person has 
earnestly interrogated his relative, now residing in the 
Spirit Land, through the prayers and aspirations of his 
soul — its thoughts reaching the listening spirit there — 
then, according to the principle of spiritual affinity or 
gravitation, the angel from afar, lending attention, 
would answer the interrogator bv discharging a current 
of thought upon the swift-winged magnetic elements 
which pervade the intermediate space, and the terres- 
trial beseecher would thereby receive a fresh inspiration 
of sentiments into his own soul, and arise from his de- 
votions refreshed and happy. And in like manner the 
earnest questioner, through the sounds, also receives a 
necessarily laconic, and often very imperfect, frequently 
misunderstood, answer from the second sphere of hu- 
man existence — a response, rapped and spelled out ac- 
cording to the letters of the alphabet. 

At the conversation already related, of the lady with 
her brother, it is well to remark, that he did not come, 
as she supposed, locally and physically, within the at- 
mospheric envelopment of our planet ; but he sought a 
position upon the plane of his present existence, which 
would harmonize with the current of terrestrial magnet- 
ism and electricity of the earth, and also with the vital- 
electrical atmosphere w T hich emanated from the "medi- 
ums," and the circle in which the lady, his sister, was 



54 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

located ; and, from his elevated position, he conversed 
with her almost, as it were, " face to face," and it seemed 
to her mind that his spirit was really in the room. In 
a spiritual sense he was, indeed, even by her side ! and 
the distance between them was, as it were, annihilated. 
Let me not be misunderstood in this : I do not mean to 
say that there are not many, very many, beautiful excep- 
tions to this statement: but the rule, the principle, is, 
that spirits do not come within our terrestrial atmo- 
sphere when they communicate their thoughts to man. 
Moreover, I have observed that the current of thought 
which a spirit sends to earth, generally comes from an 
oblique direction, and scarcely ever at right angles, with 
the location of the friend, or the circle of friends, with 
whom it is communicating. This truth is susceptible 
of a very rational and philosophical explanation. But 
I leave, for the present, all scientific considerations of 
this particular branch of the subject, as it can only ben- 
efit those who are already far advanced in spiritual phi- 
losophy and experience ; and of this class the number is, 
as yet, too limited to demand a minnte solution of this 
beautiful fact. 



THE DECAY OF SUPERSTITION. 



The mighty energies and wondrous attributes of the 
Omnipotent Principle are just beginning, as it were, to 
be unrolled and revealed to man ! No ; but man is 
being refined and unfolded, and is becoming more and 
more capable of comprehending the great realities of 
his own existence and of the nature and perfections of 
God. No more can the raging tempest frighten him 
into the paying of homage to some supposed angry 
Deity ; nor the rolling thunder cause him to tremble, 
and call upon him, with its hoarse mutterings, to burn 
the innocent lamb for a sacrifice to appease the wrath 
of his god. The deep moan and shrill wail of the 
storm-heaving sea, shall no more drive the free-born 
soul into the worship of unknown gods — the unseen dis- 
pensers of avenging power ; neither shall he any more 
bow down before unholy altars, when the long-slumber- 
ing volcano shall pour forth, in tones of thunder, its 
burning tide. But man shall learn to calm the tempest ; 
already he makes the wind waft his ships to foreign 
shores ! He shall command the ocean ; for even now 



56 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

upon its waves he calmly rides in palaces ! He shall 
control the lightnings ; for, behold ! how they convey 
his thoughts from nation to nation, and from sphere to 
sphere ! Verily, mankind hath already attained unto a 
high eminence, and, while spirits are manifesting their 
presence and power in our midst, the intelligent and 
pure-minded individual of this era remains wholly un- 
moved by superstitious awe and false adoration. The 
spiritual world may shower upon us its heavenly truths, 
and the two worlds, the material and spiritual, may em- 
brace and unite. Earth may partake of the joys and 
. truths of a higher sphere, and be joined, with it, into 
one heavenly kingdom of peace ; but no more shall the 
miracle-expecting multitudes among men sacrifice their 
reason upon superstition's altar. 

At this point, I am impressed to introduce an appar- 
ently trifling incident as a gateway opening to a field of 
still more interesting explanations of the phenomena 
now particularly under consideration. I allude to 
another conversation with spirits, through sounds, which 
also occurred in New York. A circle being formed 
round the table, as usual, a gentleman present inquired : 

" Will my father converse with me % " To his ques- 
tion there was no response. And each person asked for 
their friends, in turn, still receiving no reply. Soon the 
rappings gave the signal for the alphabet, and a sen- 



THE DECAY OF SUPERSTITION. 57 

tence was spelled out, directing the young ladies (the 
mediums) to sing. This request being immediately com- 
plied with, the communications subsequently were free 
and satisfactory. The direction to sing elicited some 
questioning remarks from the company, and one among 
them queried: "I wonder if spirits hear our voices?" 
and another said : " I think spirits cannot be much de- 
lighted by such music as mortals make." As these re- 
marks were developed by the little circumstance above 
related, so are the following explanations developed by 
those remarks. I will, however, state, parenthetically, 
that the object of the singing, in this instance, was to 
establish a passiveness of feeling and a harmony of sen- 
timent in the circle. For, as I have already said, the 
requisite quantity of vital-electrical emanations, which 
constitute the physical conditions upon which spiritual 
beings can manifest their presence and thoughts, cannot 
be obtained from the mediums unless mental tran- 
quillity and a degree of physical quietude be preserved 
on their part, and also throughout the circle of individ- 
uals. An answer to the question, " Do spirits hear our 
voices % " may be of immense service to many minds. 

The opinion has long been entertained that man 
should address the Deity with oral prayer — that all 
gratitude and supplication must be pronounced -in hu- 
man language — that the mouth should give utterance to 



58 • PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

adoration and praise. Andible prayers, both loud and 
long, are esteemed by many persons as alone adequate 
to arouse and secure the attention of God. Now, I do 
not place any confidence in the supposed validity or 
soul-sincerity of those prayers which are orally expressed, 
according to agreement, before and after pulpit dis- 
courses in our churches, nor upon any other occasion, 
which fashion may have adopted or usage sanctioned. 
Yet prayer, the mind-uplifting prayer, is not only phi- 
losophical, but absolutely essential to mental happiness 
and to the progressive purification of the impetuous 
affections which live in the soul's sanctuary. True 
prayer is perpetual ! The good man prays "without 
ceasing ;" and there are moments when from "out of 
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh " glow- 
ing desires and the emotions of gratitude ; but these 
gushings forth of the soul's fulness have no stated 
periods of overflowing, obedient to mere mechanical 
arrangements. Nay, they are spontaneous, welling up 
from the eternal fountain within us ! But formal and 
ceremonious prayer is both vitiating and blasphemous ; 
the mere habit of prayer, though calculated to discipline 
thought, is never purifying or elevating. Popular the- 
ology and fashion term it a duty ; philosophy and good 
sense consider it as a piece of mechanism, and a rem- 
nant of the ceremonials of the Patriarchal Age. Secret 



THE DECAY OF SUPERSTITION. 59 

charities are as heavenly as secret injuries are diabol- 
ical — so inward prayer is as refining and efficacious as 
the merely habitual oral prayers are corrupting and 
immoral. Now, let me be distinctly comprehended. I 
do not repudiate, nor would I suppress, the beautiful 
and honest utterance of inward sentiments when the 
mouth echoes them from out of the soul ; I love to hear 
the vocal breathings of the spirit's desires for truth, 
and its sweet-toned expression of thankfulness ; such 
prayers are natural as the bursting of a rose-bud in a 
spring morning — as beautiful in the sight of angelic 
beings as the rivers of truth that ripple through their 
holy -lands — musical as a strain in the universal harmo- 
nies of nature which reverberate even unto Him the 
Great Author of all harmony. Such prayer, such 
praise, such worship, is indeed unlike the ceremonious 
and lip-deep utterances (termed prayers) which too 
often emanate from the modern pulpit, and which I am 
impressed to denounce as being corrupting and demora- 
lizing to both the pronouncer and his audience. 

He prays, who, in the very centre of his heart ear- 
nestly and honestly and continually desires to acquire 
temperance, and patience, and truth, and love to the 
neighbor, and love to God ; and he prays who feels a 
perjyetual gratitude for all the blessings he enjoys, for 
the sun's light and heat, for summer and winter, for 



60 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

seed-time and harvest, for the love he is enabled to bear 
to his enemies, and the forgiveness with which he can 
forgive them ; for the love which others consecrate to 
him.. For the unchangeable manifestation of Divine 
love — that love greater than all; and Divine will — 
that will which is without shadow of turning ; and Di- 
vine Wisdom — that wisdom which is universal, — these 
attributes of the Father spreading throughout nature's 
boundless territories ; if he be thus deserving and thus 
thankful, then that man prays " without ceasing " — he 
prays that holy and glowing prayer which the angels love 
to gaze upon — that living prayer which sanctifies his 
own soul. Such prayers seldom express themselves in 
words ; they incarnate and embody themselves in right- 
eous deeds ! They are never " full of sound and fury, 
signifying nothing," but impersonate themselves in the 
beautiful form of Charity, clothed with the stainless 
habiliments of chastity, meekness, goodness, virtue, and 
magnanimity. Her voice is low and gentle, and, like 
the violet, she only proclaims her own sweetness by the 
giving forth of her native fragrance. I am impressed 
to affirm, that " a well-ordered life and a godly con- 
versation A constitute the only real and truthful prayer 
that man can utter. But here let us understand that 
the present structure of society is not favorable to the 
manifestation of such gentle meekness and magnani- 



THE DECAY OF SUPERSTITION. 61 

mous virtues, particularly in those who have inherited 
an unfavorable organization of body and mind to begin 
with, and, perhaps, have received an education no less 
prejudicial to personal holiness and harmony. Let 
those, therefore, who have been blessed with unearned 
riches in their physical and spiritual constitutions, do 
all they can to help on the unfortunate to the full and 
complete expression of those inward prayers which lie 
hidden and undeveloped in the most interior sanctuary 
of the soul ; and let the rich and endowed give unto 
the poor and bereft. 

The belief is erroneous, that spirits can, at all times, 
hear our voices ; it is a truth, however, that they can 
always see our thoughts. " But," says one who has 
conversed with spirits through the agency of electrical 
vibrations, " I have had spelled out to me the following 
sentence " — state your desires orally and we will 
respond — " now what does this mean ? " The explana- 
tion of this is exceedingly plain : there are but very 
few individuals who can think distinctly without the 
use of words ; they must talk to define an idea even to 
themselves ; and hence it is difficult to get at what such 
individuals would say, or to unravel a clear expression 
from the confusion and disorder of their thoughts. It 
is only the well-developed, well-disciplined, and healthy 
intellect that can, distinctly and positively, impress its 



62 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTEECOUESE. 

thoughts, by an exercise of the will-power, without oral 
expression, upon another spirit. And thus it is that 
those who cannot think their desires distinctly are 
requested, by the spirits, to utter them in words, that 
they may receive a correct impression of what the 
speaker would convey, and also that he himself may 
thus better understand his own question, and compre- 
hend the answer. But we are not to suppose that 
spirits are with us at all times — always ready to answer 
when we may choose to call upon them — for, were it 
so, and man could gain access to them and obtain their 
counsel upon all occasions, through any avenue what- 
soever, he would then inevitably forget, or refuse, to 
fill the measure of his own individual capacity — he 
would cease to play his part in the sphere of responsi- 
bility wherein he is comparatively a Free Agent — and 
he would sit " all the day idle" waiting for a " Thus 
saith the Lord" — for spiritual guidance — as an easy 
and agreeable substitute for the exercise of his own 
immortal powers and wisdom-attributes — to inform him 
what to think, where to go, and what to do ! 



THE GUARDIANSHIP OF SPIRITS. 



Interior experience and observation teach me this as 
a principle : When human endeavor and aspiration 
have attained the summit of their ability to accomplish 
— have reached the apex of the mighty pyramid of all 
material science, philosophy, theology, and morality, 
which man, in his own beautiful strength, can erect 
and climb, then, upon that height, are the deeper spir- 
itual elements of the soul unfolded, and, touching the 
spirit- world, they receive from the angelic combination 
of administering spirits in the Summerland, a spiritual 
philosophy and a divine illumination. In other words, 
when an individual human mind, in its physical and 
moral organization and development, reaches nigh unto 
the spirit-world, then spiritual enlightenment and direc- 
tion flow into the soul's affections and understanding. 

But, in our endeavors to attain this organic harmony 
and moral elevation, let it not be supposed that we are 
always left to strive and struggle alone. No ! Like 
ourselves, all spirits and angels were once men. They 
have lived in corporeal organisms ; have walked upon 



64 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

this, or upon some other earth which rolls in space ; 
have experienced the pleasures and vicissitudes — the 
joys and sorrows — the tears and smiles — of this incipient 
existence. But now, having passed through the trans- 
formatory process of outer dissolution, which mankind 
term death, they reside in the spirit-land ; and, in har- 
mony with the immutable laws of progression and 
development, they have transcended all terrestrial im- 
perfections, and still they march victoriously onward ! 
But they who have already attained to celestial heights, 
as well as those who have not yet advanced far in the 
spiritual country, they can behold us from where they 
are, and in our evening meditations ; in our profound- 
est slumbers ; in our daily occupations ; in our " cir- 
cles " of fraternal love ; the spirit-friends, whom our 
souls most attract, come to us and breathe their pare 
and beautiful sentiments into our souls. And when, 
by reading our thoughts, they see us in trouble or in 
danger, it is reasonable to anticipate the reception (that 
is, if the vessels of our minds will admit the influx) of 
some spiritual assistance and direction from the angels' 
home. Surely, Christians will remember one forcible 
illustration of this truth — the beautiful account of how 
the scales fell from Saul's eyes ! A protecting spirit 
— an angel-messenger, watching the moment when the 
warrior's soul would admit of it, sent into his moral 



THE GUARDIANSHIP OF SPIRITS. 65 

perceptions a current of divine elements, which not 
only made him see the error of bis course, but turned 
his thoughts on high! And there is, -also, another 
prominent and beautiful instance of spiritual guidance 
recorded in religious history : it is related that " the 
angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, 
saying, Arise, and take the child and his mother, and 
flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee 
word." Now, the majority of those who believe, because 
they have been educated so to do, in this circumstance, 
though it is said to have occurred centuries ago, will 
not give credence to similar, and often more complete, 
spiritual manifestations daily happening in our very 
midst. That principle of Nature which could develop 
spiritual intercourse in past times, is surely capable of 
doing the same thing in this era ; for there must be 
unity and system in the operation of God's unchange- 
able laws. If it be said, by some objector, that the 
circumstance above alluded to cannot be referred to 
nature's laws ; that it was accomplished by an especial 
command of God ; then I remind the reader that there 
is nothing outside of, or superior to, that stupendous 
organization of matter and mind which I am impressed 
to term, Nature. Neither are we to suppose that the 
Deity will do for one inhabitant of earth, what he will 
not do for another ; because he is " no respecter of 






66 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

persons," and because, also, according to the affirmation 
of the highest authority among Christians, " he is with- 
out variableness, neither shadow of turning ! " There- 
fore, upon the broad and immovable foundation of 
Nature and her laws, (which laws are the very elements 
of God's will,) we should rest the conviction, that spirits 
can see our thoughts, and that they do, sometimes, 
approach us to remove the scales of superstition and 
error from our eyes — thus directing our thoughts 
toward the " Eternal Mind who will hear a sigh's low 
music 'mid bursting praises that ascend upward from a 
thousand realms ! " 



THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS. 



Under this head, I proceed to briefly and analytic- 
ally consider the remark of the gentleman who queried 
as to whether " spirits could delight in the music which 
mortals make ? " I am impressed to reply, that spirits 
do experience pleasure in beholding the harmony and 
other effects which music creates in our souls ; and it 
would seem, at first glance, that, being pleased, the 
spirits must, therefore, hear our voices. This requires 
an explanation. Spirits can hear our voices, and we 
can hear their tones ; but the question arises, " How 
can this be possible?" And the answer is, that the 
material senses have corresponding internal and spir- 
itual senses. We do not see with the eye, with the 
mere visible organ — but by a principle of spiritual per- 
ception which, as a portion of the mind, lives in the 
nerves of the eye as the soul lives in the body. So the 
external mechanism and structure of the ear are an 
exact impersonation, so to speak, of the principles of 
hearing. And so with all the other senses. The sci- 
entific world does not sanction these facts, because 



68 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

medical men know nothing about them. Materialism 
characterizes the sciences of this age : and hence it is 
not to be expected that the spiritual truths, which 
remain in Nature's casket as yet unlocked to men of 
popular science and learning, should, when revealed, 
be recognized and acknowledged by them ; every new- 
found treasure the materialistic intellect rejects, but it 
is not less a gem of truth, destined yet to shine in the 
diadem of knowledge! And, though the oculist and 
the optician of to-day may not concur in the fact here 
disclosed, we rest perfectly assured that this philosophy 
of the internal senses is recognized by reason, and 
sanctioned by nature, and these are high authorities. 

When spirits speak to us, they address our interior 
and spiritual sense of hearing. And when we behold 
spirits we exercise the internal principle of perception 
or seeing. It not unfrequently occurs, that an individ- 
ual thinks his outward senses addressed when, like Saul, 
he hears a voice pronouncing his name, apparently, from 
the depths of the air. And when spirits have been 
seen, the beholder is apt to believe that the vision was 
confined or addressed to the outward sense of seeing — 
so distinct and self-evident is a real manifestation of 
spiritual presence. We can, however, be easily de- 
ceived with regard to the seeing of spirits, because of 
the fact that the mind is itself capable of combining 



THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS. 69 

and re-combining thoughts and imperfectly remembered 
circumstances, personages, and scenery in a new and in- 
voluntary manner. And, again, the superficial elements 
and the unquieted thoughts of the mind are sometimes, 
even unconsciously to the individual, elaborated, by the 
dreamy action of the will, into different human forms 
and faces, bursting out of intensely black and gray 
ragged clouds, having all the semblance of an imperfect 
spiritual manifestation. There are always to be found 
minds of this description, differing one from another in 
that the forms w\hich they thus manufacture, as it were, 
are not always beautiful and heavenly. The mind 
which dwells on celestial and pure things, will see 
seraph faces ; whilst the disturbed individual, recall- 
ing the lessons of his theology, will often behold 
hideous-visaged demons, the conjurations of his own 
brain. Among nearly all religious sects are evident 
indications that spurious spirit-seeing has prevailed to 
considerable extent. The votaries of St. Vitus were 
frequently thrown into paroxysms of enthusiasm and 
ecstasy by a kind of reckless indulgence of the spirit- 
ual sentiments amounting almost to religious voluptu- 
ousness ; and the consequences were conspicuously 
indicated in the professions which they made with re- 
gard to the seeing of their departed friends and ac- 
quaintances. Now, I do not undertake to deny that the 



70 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOT7ESE. 

early disciples of St. Titus sometimes perceived the 
forms of their friends whose spirits had passed from 
earth. Neither do I doubt the truthfulness of many 
similar professions among the spiritually-minded " Shak- 
ers " of our day and generation ; but I am impressed to 
consider a large majority of the spiritual perceptions 
and communications alleged by different minds to have 
been enjoyed by them, daring their moments of reli- 
gious excitement, as the results principally of cerebral 
agitation. 1 have stood by the bedside of the disturbed 
dreamer, have watched the thoughts of the fanatic, 
have read the wild fancies of the maniac, and have 
painfully traced the bewildering imaginings of the 
inebriate ; and have thus particularly and critically ex- 
amined, with my spiritual perceptions, the mental 
conditions and phenomena which are developed by 
duplex insanity, monomania, delirium tremens, etc. ; 
and I can truthfully affirm, that the objects, localities, 
scenery, and personages which the victims of these 
maladies profess to see and encounter, vehemently 
vindicating their immediate presence and reality, are all 
of the same class of mental delusion, and are absolutely 
nothing more than unconscious elaborations of the 
surcharged brain, which contains all the germinal essen- 
ces of the internal or thinking principle. An explana- 
tion of these cerebral projections of objects and scenery, 



THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS. 71 

I defer until I come to an interior analyzation of the 
psychological phenomena which characterized the men- 
tal state of Baron Swedenborg. 

But here let us discriminate between what is real 
ind what is unreal in the perception of spiritual beings. 
To the healthy and discriminating mind there is no 
confounding of a substantial vision of super-mundane 
)ersonages and scenery with the dreamy hallucinations 
)f the disturbed intellect. "When the interior senses of 
he mind distinctly see a spirit or hear its serene, rich, 
riendly tones, it is impossible for the thus favored in- 
ividual to be mistaken. If, however, as it sometimes 
appens, we get only an imperfect glimpse of some 
uardian-spirit that seeks our recognition and welfare,— 
nd if we cannot be absolutely certain and honest in 
ur convictions of that angel-presence, and have not a 
erfect assurance that the vision was no illusion, — then 

is wisdom to keep our understandings open to the 
iception of more substantial evidence, to the end that 
le mind may not be conducted into regions of uncer- 
in hypothesis and imagination. A truthful and 

autiful instance of spirit-seeing was originally re- 
nted in one of our journals. It well and touchingly 
ustrates the naturalness and self-evidentness of spirit- 
,1 insight, quickened in this instance, as it sometimes is, 

material attenuation consequent upon disease; which 



72 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

attenuation partially emancipating the spirit from its 
earthly temple, renders it more susceptible to the im- 
pression and perception of the presence of guardian 
angels. 

" A little girl, in a family of my acquaintance," says 
the narrator, " a lovely and precious child, lost her 
mother at an age too early to fix the loved features in 
her remembrance. She was beautiful ; and as the bud 
of her heart unfolded, it seemed as if won by that 
mother's prayers to turn instinctively heavenward. The 
sweet, conscientious, and prayer-loving child was the 
idol of the bereaved family. But she faded away early. 
She would lie upon the lap of the friend who took al 
mother's kind care of her, and, winding one wasted arm 
about her neck, would say, 'Now tell me about my 
mamma!' And when the oft-told tale had been re- 
peated, she would ask softly, i Take me into the parlor ; 
I want to see my mamma ! ' The request was never 
refused ; and the affectionate sick child would lie for| 
hours, gazing on her mother's portrait. But 

" ' Pale and wan she grew, and weakly — 
Bearing all her pains so meekly, 
That to them she still grew dearer, 
As the trial-hour grew nearer." 

" That hour came at last, and the weeping neighbors 
assembled to see the little child die. The dew of deat] 



THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS. 73 

was already on the flower, as its life-sun was £oin ff 
down. The little chest heaved faintly,— spasmodically. 

' Do you know me, darling ! ' sobbed close in her ear, 
the voice that was dearest; but it awoke no answer. 
All at once a brightness, as if from the upper world, 
burst over the child's colorless countenance. The eye- 
lids flashed open; and the lips parted; the wan curd- 
ling hands flew up, in the little one's last impulsive 
effort, as she looked piercingly into the far above. 

< Mother ! ' she cried, with surprise and transport in 
her tone— and passed with that breath into her mother's 
bosom. 

"Said a distinguished divine, who stood by that bed 
of joyous death, < If I had never believed in the minis- 
tration of departed ones before I could not doubt it 

now ! ' " 

Thus the spirits whom our souls most attract, often 
draw nigh to us, even when through the grossness of 
our material senses we see them not, and they do " de- 
light in the music we make," for they take pleasure in 
whatever influences us to harmony, tranquillity, and 
happiness. It is not that the words we sing, or the 
sounds we awaken, can so charm those who listen to 
celestial strains; but the spirit of those words, those 
sounds, lives in us, and our guardian spirits love to arouse ■ 
that musical element in our minds, thereby, in a meas- 



74 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

ure, dissipating the outward discords which surround 
and act upon us on earth. Hence, when a circle of 
friends meet for spiritual communications, and find it 
difficult to get responses to their well-intended ques- 
tionings, then let them unite their voices and " sing," let 
them be cheerful together, and the effects thereof, quiet- 
ing disturbed minds, will delight the attending spirits 
near ; and such unanimity of feeling and sentiment will, 
temporarily at least, harmonize the human with the 
divine. And if we would but carry thence the princi- 
ples of music into our homes — into our social, political, 
and religious institutions — and thus render human 
society as a musical instrument, I know its chords would 
frequently be touched by spirit-fingers, and the angel- 
tones thereon awakened would sweetly proclaim the 
kingdom of heaven on earth ! 

There have been always, in all ages of the world, 
some slight, exceedingly obscure, and fragmentary mani- 
festations of invisible and spiritual power ; for many 
individuals as well as various sects have received what 
they conceived to be spiritual revelations from the un- 
seen, and to the majority of minds, the mysterious and 
uncertain world. But there never has been presented 
to mankind, in any one era of human progress previous 
to this century, anything like a clear, consistent, and 
incontestable demonstration of spiritual presence and 



THE DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS. 75 

influence ; and the explanation why mankind, in no pre- 
vious age, have witnessed those undeniable evidences of 
immortality and spiritual realities, which are manifested 
and beginning to be recognized in the present century, 
is this : mankind in general, with but few exceptions, 
have never ventured the exercise of their reason prin- 
ciple upon mysterious and super-mundane occurrences, 
but have repulsed every attempt on the part of a spirit 
to manifest its real existence and mission to the earth's 
inhabitants, with the most suffocating scepticism or 
fanatical superstition. It is surely very evident, that 
he fear of evil-spirits has hitherto been much more 
eneral and powerful than the love of God. The fear 
f a fabulous devil is, even at this advanced period of 
ivilization, much stronger, in timid and undeveloped 
inds, than the love of truth and Deity ! And the 
onsequence is, that, whenever the inhabitants of the 
irit-world strive to manifest themselves to the inhabi- 
nts of the natural world, in which we live, the 
ioneers from that superior country to this compara- 
ely isolated planet, are deprived an entrance into our 
mes and communities, — into our affections and under- 
andings, — by the superstition and scepticism of the 
ople ; a people made thus sceptical and superstitious 
ignorance and error; they are afraid to receive 
e spirits in their homes, lest they be not angels from 



v 



76 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

heaven, but agents of the supposed king of darkness 
who has mythologically been invested with such terl 
rifle power and influence. Scepticism and superstition 
are the legitimate offsprings of ignorance and theologi 
cal error — and this remark applies with equal forcj 
and truthfulness to all Christian and heathen form 
of religious worship and education. But the timj 
has now arrived, when the two worlds — the spiritus 
and the natural — are prepared to meet and embracj 
each other on the middle-ground of mental freedom an 
progression. And those who are most advanced i 
individual refinement, harmony, and spiritual truth wi| 
gladly receive and philosophically interpret every coi 
munication which may emanate from the founts abovj 



THE STRATFORD 'MYSTERIES. 



Aside from the religious want of the age, there is still 
another reason whv these manifestations and demonstra- 
tions of spiritual existence and power are becoming so 
general at this particular time, — it is this : There has 
never before existed upon this earth so much mental, 
and moral, and religious freedom — never so much act- 
ual goodness and universal love — we have grown 
almost to the spiritual world ; and the period even now 
appears brief when humanity will realize its nearness 
to, and friendship for, the spirit-land ; and man shall 
aspire to be like unto the angels ! And while we are 
looking for a full realization of these hio;h convictions 
and sublime realities, let us " fear not to entertain stran- 
gers " either in the form of personages, thoughts, or phil- 
osophies, because " they may be angels," or messengers 
of truth, as was once discovered by an oriental patriarch, 
whose fame is recorded in the Primitive History. 

These reflections and admonitions are prompted by 
the widely-acknowledged fact, that in various portions 
of the world — especially in America, at this present — 



78 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

there are many indications of the presence and influence 
of spiritual beings or agencies, possessing intelligence and 
manifesting extraordinary power over material objects 
and substances. Many persons believe these sounds and 
manifestations to be the effect of some ingeniously-ar- 
ranged machinery ; others believe that they are produced 
by electrical discharges from magnetic batteries, man- 
aged by good clairvoyants to answer such oral or men- 
tal questions as only spiritually enlightened clairvoyants 
could perceive and solve; and there is still another class 
of persons who believe them to be the experiments and 
caprices of satanie agencies. Now, whether all the sin- 
gular and mysterious developments ever actually oc- 
curred at Rochester in the manner alleged by those who 
claim to have witnessed and investigated them, I am not 
impressed to say, (for I consider the facts already suffi- 
ciently demonstrated to the public understanding ;) nor 
have I ever been moved to seek any information with 
regard to the causes of those declared manifestations 
prior to the writing of this chapter. And I had never 
witnessed any of these things previous to last spring, 
when, although much engaged in New York, I was im- 
pressed to visit the village of Stratford, Connecticut, for 
the express purpose of observing, with both my natural 
and spiritual perceptions, a variety of mysterious noises 
and exciting phenomena, occurring there, at a private 



THE STRATFORD MYSTERIES. 79 

residence. And now I desire the reader to follow me in 
the ensuing investigations. 

First — As to the facts. Every consistent step was 
taken, by the proprietor of the house, to satisfy many of 
his particular neighbors and a few of the influential citi- 
zens of the village, that, at least, a great number of the 
sounds and external appearances were not produced by 
human hands or instrumentalities. Among many other 
and equally strange things which occurred there, the 
members of the family and other individuals have wit- 
nessed (though invariably subsequent to the arrange- 
ment) the grouping of various figures, made fi*om arti- 
cles of clothing taken mysteriously from the wardrobes 
and trunks ; they have also seen books thrown about ; 
nails, keys, and other portable things belonging to the 
house, falling in their midst; they have had black 
crape tied on the door-latch, and the looking-glasses 
covered with sheets, as is customary, in some families, 
when a corpse is in the house; but the most interesting 
and, I think, important phenomena, have been the writ- 
ing of various unknown and apparently insignificant 
characters which have been impressed upon the walls of 
the chambers, and upon the piazza and elsewhere. Now, 
there were in this house two individuals who seemed to 
be particularly and inseparably connected with almost 
everything which had been, and was being, developed 



pnn ; s ; : ::y : I spiRrrrAL Dsteecoue- 

— I allude to irl and her brother. A higher 

: mani - --.:ally attended the former; 

bat the lattei — the i ; — sc sine . : : some pe bo be 

raal: and unnecessarily tormented by evil spirits. 

5 his ."..: Ling was sometimes suddenly torn ; his 

-iously i : :-aled a: 
and on one o. is suspended by a rope to a 

: he would be startled by loud raps suddenly 
iug under his foots led the 

stairs : and he was ma le sick and delirious by fright and 
agitation. 

Second — A3 to the or''. The evi- 

to an unenlightened mind that nianv of tl 

sounds and appearances were not produ human 

Is, or by any mundane ;._ surily 

in wha: ared to be a fact, that it was 

and still is impossible to trace their primary cause 

:-. Of rase, do one will pretend to 
afhrin : of there being any human 

agen :iie performan z these mysterious 

:>n the contrary, it i ait with reason 

to believe, that, aim rything developed in that 

I have been caused, under favorable circuni- 
I plans and inventions of some 
member- z the family. But when the existing circum- 
stances did n-jt favor such contrivances, plans, and ar- 



THE 6TEATF0ED atYSTEEEES. 81 

rangements, and when the family were assembled all 
together in one room — it being ascertained that the do- 
mestics were honest, and for the most part ignorant of 
what had occurred and was occurring — then, should a 
book be thrown from an opposite side of the room, or a 
full, vibrating, concussive sound be made in the upper 
rooms, or a window-pane be broken from the inside, or 
should the legs of the boy's pantaloons be suddenly torn 
in strips, and he be tied by those strips to the chair in 
which he was sitting, without his knowledge, and while, 
as it is alleged, his hands were grasped by his mother — 
I say, under such stubborn circumstances, (which render 
human agency impossible,) should the above-mentioned 
phenomena occur, as in truth they did, then the only in- 
ference is, that those things were caused by an invisible 
intelligence and potency. 

Of the laws of mind and matter, the world is compar- 
atively ignorant ; and the principles which govern the 
inhabitants of the spirit-land are still less understood by 
the generality of mankind. In the midst of all this 
ignorance, the desire for knowledge moves many minds 
to ask these great questions : " What is a spirit \ " and 
apprehending spirit to be an intangible and an immate- 
rial substance, such minds inquire, " How is it possible 
for spirits to move inorganic bodies and material sub- 



82 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

stances?" Again, "Why do spirits only visit certain 
localities, and intimately associate their manifestations 
only with certain individuals ? " " Why are these man- 
ifestations not in all places, and with all persons?" 
These questions demand, and are capable of receiving, 
reasonable and philosophical answers — to furnish which 
I will now proceed to state what I know of these things, 
both from long and unbroken investigations into the 
laws which govern matter and mind, and from recent 
impressions which I have received concerning what oc- 
curred at the house of the gentleman in Stratford at the 
time of my visits there. 

1. A spirit is no immaterial substance ; on the con- 
trary, the spiritual organization is composed of matter — 
such as we see, feel, eat, smell, and inhale — in a very 
high state of refinement and attenuation. The spiritual 
body is vastly more potential than the bone and muscle 
which its elements can so readily and powerfully move 
while inhabiting the earthly body ; neither is it impal- 
pable or intangible, except to the material senses ; for, 
to the spiritual senses — which senses are opened by en- 
tering the superior condition, and, generally speaking, 
at the moment of death — the spiritual organization is 
a more tangible, palpable, and substantial piece of 
reality than it is possible for the unenlightened or ma- 
terialistic intellect to imagine. 



THE STRATFORD MYSTERIES. 83 

2. That spirit can come into contact with inorganic 
and material substances, is proved by every man's expe- 
perience. Railroads and steamboats are made and 
managed by spirit. Suppose you desire to lift a weight ; 
what is it that performs the labor ? I answer, it is your 
spirit ! it is that spiritual principle within you which 
thinks, feels, loves, and reasons — it is your interior 
self ! and if the reader will reflect upon and discover 
now it is that his spirit can raise a given weight, lie 
will receive a reasonable and philosophical answer to 
the question under consideration. First, your spirit, 
which is a fine organization of fine materials, desires to 
raise the weight referred to. Now, I will describe to 
you the various invisible agencies or instrumentalities 
which are engaged within your organism to accomplish 
this purpose : The first agent is your spirit — the second 
your vital-magnetism — the third your vital electricity — 
the fourth your nerves — the fifth your muscles — and 
the sixth is the bone which, by acting in concert with 
the above-named agents, succeeds in raising the weight. 
Many unscientific persons suppose that muscle does all 
the labor which they perform ; while, in truth, muscle 
is only one of the agents which the indwelling spirit 
employs to do its will. Since, therefore, it is demon- 
strated that human spirit can come in contact with in- 
organic matter, while living in the earthly body, it 



84 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

remains no longer an unphilosophical conviction that 
spirits from the spirit-land are capable, by employing 
some invisible intermediate agencies, of approaching 
and moving objects here which our material eyes can 
recognize. But it is asked, " How can a spirit move a 
table, or a chair, or a candlestick, and guide the moving 
article to some particular locality, without the use of 
bones, muscles, nerves, etc., etc., as a human spirit can 
do while in the corporeal body ? " 

The answer to this question will cover the whole 
ground occupied by the following inquiry : " Why do 
spirits only visit certain localities and individuals , thus 
seeming to manifest exclusiveness and partiality % " 
And I proceed to state, that the two individuals already 
mentioned, as members of the family I visited in Strat- 
ford, Conn., the young girl and her brother, were both 
exceedingly surcharged, alternately, at the time the 
manifestations were being developed, with vital-mag- 
netism and vital electricity. Magnetism, which is pos- 
itive, and electricity, which is negative, would at 
different times preponderate, each having the ascen- 
dency in their systems. I was one day ascending, with 
the boy, a flight of stairs, when suddenly there came a 
quick, loud rap under his left foot, which frightened 
him exceedingly, because he supposed the sound was 
made by a spirit, and which he was educated to believe 



THE STKATFORD MYSTERIES. 85 

to be an evil spirit. But I instantly perceived that his 
system, like the -torpedo eel, had discharged a small vol- 
ume or current of vital electricity from the sole of the 
foot, which electricity, by its coming in sudden con- 
tact with the electricity of the atmosphere, produced the 
quick concussion which we heard. When magnetism 
jyrcponde rated in the systems of these individuals, then 
nails, keys, books, etc., would fly toward them; and, 
when electricity preponderated, then these various ar- 
ticles would move in an opposite direction. But I 
observed that, in many instances, the articles of furni- 
ture, etc., which were disturbed, were first moved from 
their proper locations oy the instigation of attending 
spirits, — the direction in which they subsequently 
glided along beiug almost invariably determined by the 
electrical or ma^netical condition of the sister or the 
brother at that particular time. And here let me re- 
mark, that I have heard instances of mischief cited, as 
occurring in this house, in evidence of satanic agency, 
which I now discover to have been sometimes accom- 
plished by the youth in his sport, — sometimes by elec- 
trical discharges and magnetic attractions, — and some- 
times by the almost unpardonable mischievousness of 
persons unknown to the family. " The wanton destruc- 
tion of property," alleged to have taken place on this 
gentleman's premises, is referable, in most cases, to em- 



86 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

anations of vital electricity, seeking its equilibrium in 
the external atmosphere. In this manner, window-panes 
were broken, and various small articles injured. In 
Woodbridge, N.J., some few years since, a young lady 
was affected with a disease which gave rise to similar 
phenomena. Mysterious sounds were heard in her 
presence — window-panes were frequently broken in her 
vicinity — and in like manner, door-panels were burst 
out, sometimes falling toward her, sometimes from her, 
and, especially, were quick, concussive, and very loud 
sounds heard under her feet as she ascended a flight of 
stairs. Ultimately, however, the mysterious phenomena 
frightened her into an illness which cured the malady. 
Here we are reminded that, though not necessarily a dis- 
eased state, certain conditions of the body and mind are 
essential to produce the sounds through which spirits 
now at times communicate — taking advantage, as they 
do, of the electrical and magnetical atmosphere thus 
emitted, to move articles and even to converse ; and this 
explains why these mysterious manifestations are con- 
fined to particular persons and localities. 

I now proceed to explain how spirits can move a 
table or other inorganic substances: A spirit, without 
possessing any of the grossness of the earthly form, is 
yet organized in its principles and functions precisely 
as we are in this life ; and when it — a spirit — desires to 



TI1E STRATFORD MYSTERIES. 87 

move a table (by way of manifesting its nearness), it 
concentrates its own magnetic and positive elements so 
as to take hold, as it were, of the magnetism of the 
atmosphere. In like maimer, this atmospherical mag- 
netism takes hold of the electricity of the air, and the 
latter is then concentrated upon the article which it is 
the spirit's design to move. Atmospherical magnetism 
and electricity are, therefore, the nerves and muscles 
which spirits employ when manifesting their presence 
to the material senses of believing as well as sceptical 
individuals. Hence, when "rappings " are heard, and 
when it is certain that no mischievous or design- 
ing person is producing them by way of imitation, then 
it is perfectly reasonable to conclude, as has been hith- 
erto explained, that a friendly spirit from the spirit- 
land is producing electrical, rolling concussions upon 
some material substance, through the intermediate 
agencies of terrestrial magnetism and electricity. The 
modus operandi of these phenomena I design not now 
to detail ; because, at present, it is deemed sufficient for 
mankind to know that it is both naturally and philo- 
sophically possible for spirits to approach and influence 
heavy and gross bodies of matter. 

Of the two mediums we are considering, the boy, 
Henry, is naturally nervous ; but the young lady, his 
sister, has been rendered so by the strange and unex- 



88 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

pected sounds and phenomena that have frequently 
attended her steps and movements. The parents have 
received the testimony of young Henry, I believe, as 
being literally true on all occasions ; but I have discov- 
ered that he frequently failed to discriminate, during 
certain moments of mental agitation, between the sounds 
and effects which he himself made, and those sounds 
which were produced by a spiritual presence. On one 
occasion he was found with a rope passed under his arms 
and suspended to the limb of a tree. When removed 
from that position, he related that he " screamed at the 
top of his voice." But it was ascertained, that had he 
in reality done so, the domestics, who had been near the 
spot, must have heard him. Now, it was not with the 
intention to deceive that he made this declaration — he 
really supposed that he had " called aloud " — as I dis- 
covered when viewing the circumstance from my 
superior condition; at which time I also learned,. that, 
to control the boy from effecting some premeditated 
imprudence, a spirit near him, taking advantage of the 
electrical state of his system, actually made him uncon- 
sciously instrumental in tying himself to the tree ; and 
in order that he might not escape and accomplish his 
previously conceived design, the guardian spirit im- 
pressed him to feel fright, and to think that he called 
for help till such time as it was deemed prudent to re- 



THE STEATFORD MYSTERIES. 89 

lease him. Those of my readers who are at all ac- 
quainted with the recent discoveries in pneumatological 
or psychological science, or with the symptoms and 
effects consequent upon an incipient somnambulic state, 
will readily understand how one mind can cause an- 
other to feel and behold things which in reality have no 
existence. And in like manner, as one individual can 
cause another to experience sensations which are merely 
imagined by the operator, so spirits can and do effect 
certain impressible minds to think they say and perform 
things while they are, in fact, silent and inactive. 
Spirits can also impress such minds to think they see 
that which is not, and again not to see that which really 
is. For instance — it has been affirmed by the parents 
of Henry, and by others visiting at their house, that 
many articles have been instantly and invisibly carried 
from one place to another in the room where they were 
sitting, and that the articles so moved were rendered in- 
visible while being conducted through the air. Xow, 
although the facts alleged are true, the mode is not. 
The spirit or spirits that produced the phenomena were 
very careful to so act upon the minds of those in the 
room as to render it absolutely impossible for them to 
have realized that the articles were passing through the 
air, or even to realize that their own mental attention 
had been in the least diverted or disturbed ; they un- 



90 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITTAL IXTERCOrESE. 

knowingly yielded to the silent power of mind acting 
upon mind ; and thus many things are asserted as facts 
by this family and other individuals associated with 
similar phenomena which are, in reality, nothing more 
than mental disturbances. 

It will be long ere the science of spiritual intercourse 
will be so thoroughly and universally understood as to 
render great and sad mistakes of rare occurrence. But 
to the end that a less deplorable state of ignorance, with 
regard to these things, may be speedily brought about, 
the philosopher should study to acquaint himself with 
the temperament of those who are in a fit physical and 
mental condition to truthfully receive spiritual com- 
munications : and also he should seek to understand the 
general bodily and mental state of those whose electri- 
cal sphere is adapted to the mos: species of 
spiritual manifestations — such as the moving of inor- 
ganic bodies, etc., etc. Xeither is it right for the in- 
ar to believe too quickly, or too fully, the things 
which excitable persons relate ; because some minds are 
naturally inclined to exaggerate or enlarge upon every 
thing which they may feel, see. or hear ; and, again, 
another class of minds are so acted upon by their 
superstitious feelings and religious education, or by the 
temptation to make out a favorite doctrine or lrrpotke- 
sis. as to even unconsciously misrepresent the chara 



THE STRATFORD MYSTERIES. 91 

and extent of their mysterious experiences, and likewise 
the events which they derive from the page of his- 
tory. 

We have now established one point in the inquiry — 
namely, that the phenomena which have occurred at the 
residence of the gentleman in Stratford, have been in 
the majority of instances primarily produced by spir- 
itual beings. But the question, at this point, arises : 
" Why do spirits visit mankind in this apparently insig- 
nificant manner ? " This interesting interrogation was 
answered in the following singular characters, which 
were distinctly drawn upon a turnip, which, on the 15th 
day of the month of March, 1850, fell at the feet of a 
gentleman who was, at that time, visiting the aforesaid 
house in Stratford, with a desire to investigate these 
wonderful things. The following is an exact copy of 
the form, though not of the size of the characters ; 
which, however, must not be regarded as a style of 
writing existing in the spiritual world, but only as char- 
acters or signs especially, designed and pre-eminently 
calculated to arrest public attention on earth. They are 
therefore entirely arbitrary, having no affinity, in either 
their grammatical structure or interior signification, 
with any ancient or oriental language that ever existed 
among men. They are rather " signs of the times " 
which mankind may confidently expect to realize when 



92 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTEECOUESE. 

external or terrestrial conditions are favorable to their 
development. 





E 



When I first saw these figures I recognized them as 
being, to a certain extent, analogous to some characters* 



* When these characters are seen, the questions cannot but arise — 
"How were these letters written?" — "How can spirits write?" — 
u Where do they get their ' pen, ink, and paper,' and desk ? " These 
interrogatories have been put to me by very many honest minds, and 
I will, therefore, furnish the answer in all truth and sincerity. 

When spirits make or write characters, for the purpose of arrest- 
ing public attention, they do not employ those instrumentalities which 
we use, but adopt altogether different agencies. In the first place, 
they concentrate a current of mental or vital electricity upon some par- 
ticular substance — it may be the wall, the piazza, an article of cloth- 
ing, or apiece of paper ; whatever substance they select (which is elec- 
trifiable by virtue of surrounding physical conditions) is acted upon by 
their will-power, electro-chemically, and the characters are precipitated, 
like the sunlight upon the .daguerreotype plate, forming a kind of 
electrotype impression. These impressions are, at first, very indistinct 
and shadowy ; but immediately grow more clear and permanent. I 
have known of characters, or written impressions, being made, electro- 
chemically, upon a young lady's arm, but which disappeared in a few 
days. Practical chemists will understand my meaning when I say, 
that spirits {when they themselves write) produce their marks and 
figures in accordance with the principles of electro-metallurgy. This 
term the scientific electrician will also comprehend. But the 
general reader will more readily apprehend my meaning, when I say, 
that spirits impress writing upon the wall just as daguerreotype im- 
pressions are made upon the chemically prepared surface of a plate. 



TIIE STRATFORD MYSTERIES. * 93 

which I read upon a scroll which was presented to my 
mind on the seventh of March, 1S43. The interpreta- 
tion of the above, according to my interior impressions, 
is literally as follows : " You may expect a variety of 
things from our society" Here is an answer to the in- 
quiry, respecting the object of spiritual visitings to pre- 
sent such trifling manifestations. The spirits desire to 
represent u a variety of things ;" and it is distinctly ob- 
vious, that little things will arrest the general attention, 
and awaken a more universal investigation, while some 
great development, which could only be addressed to 
the few intellects, might astound but not convince the 
thoughtless multitudes, who would at once pronounce it 
" past finding out," and become superstitious. So anx- 
ious were the spirits to impress the above sentence upon 
the minds of the members of the family, that the same 
was written, repeatedly, sometimes upon the boy's hand- 
kerchief, on his pantaloons, his coat, cap, etc. ; and it 
was always traced with the greatest accuracy and pre- 
cision — indicating an interior signification. 

But again and again it is naturally asked : " What 
is the object of all these manifestations % " The proper 
answers are repeatedly given by the spirits. Thus, on 

In this manner, I am impressed, " mene, mene, teeel, UPnAKsra " 
were written by spirits on the wall at Belshazzar's sumptuous and 
royal banquet. See Daniel v. 23. 



94 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

the 31st day of March, 1850, was found traced upon a 
step of the piazza the following : 






which being literally interpreted, according to my inte- 
rior, acquaintance with these characters, would read 
thus : "Our society desires, through various mediums, 
to impart thoughts." Also, on the end of the same 
piazza was distinctly written the word, " Selah." And 
directly underneath this word were the characters which 
follow — 





C 7 



The signification of the word " Selah " has never 
been decided by biblical commentators ; but they gen- 
erally believe it to mean a term in music, because it fre- 
quently occurs at the termination of certain paragraphs 
in the Psalms of David as recorded in the Primitive 
History. But the spirits used it in the sublimest sense 
which our most exalted imaginations can affix to the fol- 
lowing words : " Respond " — " Listen " — " Reciprocate " 
— " Echo," — meaning that they — the spirits — desire to be 
rightly heard, rightly understood, and cordially or fra- 
ternally responded to ; or, in other words, the inhabi- 



THE STRATFORD MYSTERIES. 95 

tents of the Spirit- World desire the earth's inhabitants 
to be ONE with them ! — they desire to hear a " response " 
— an " echo " — to their goodness and heavenly principles 
among the working multitudes and in the moral and in- 
tellectual labyrinths of humanity ! The characters be- 
neath the word, " Selah," being spiritually interpreted, 
read : " Different mediums communicate, from our 

SOCTETF, THOUGHTS UNTO YOU.' 5 

On the same day, the following characters were dis- 
covered, electrically impressed upon Henry's coat : 



X 






Which signify, that, to their " various thoughts unto 

YOU, THEY DESIRE A RESPONSE AN ECHO," 01*, they 

would hear the blissful harmonies which they compre- 
hend and enjoy, echoed in the souls and habitations of 
men, like a sound of music from unseen instruments ! 

But the most perfect and satisfactory communication 
among all those which were made, at that house, from 
the 10th to the 31st of March, 1850, was traced thus :* 






And this mysterious sentence, being translated into 
our language, according to my interior impressions, 



96 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

reads : A high society of Angels desire, through 

THE AGENCY OF ANOTHER AND A MORE INFERIOR SOCIETY, 
TO COMMUNICATE IN VARIOUS WAYS TO THE EARTH'S INHAB- 
ITANTS." 

This last message, with many others, was communi- 
cated on Sunday the 31st of March. But the parents, 
not knowing the meaning of these things, and being 
exceedingly agitated by the speech of ignorant and 
prejudiced people, also fearing the effects which, for 
want of a proper appreciation, understanding, and 
management of these visitations, had been wrought 
upon the son and daughter, deemed it expedient, for 
the sake of quiet in the house and to arrest the scandal 
of the village, to remove them (the children) for a time, 
a short distance from home ; and, accordingly, on the 
subsequent Monday morning, the boy and girl were 
sent into the adjoining town to remain a few days. 
On the Monday following their departure, I • again 
visited the house in question. I arrived there nearly 
three-quarters of an hour before Henry's return from 
the country with his step-father, who had that morn- 
ing gone to bring him home. During his (the youth's) 
absence, no very interesting manifestations occurred ; 
and it seems that the parents, though desirous of having 
the boy with them, yet dreaded his presence — fearing 
it would induce more communications and mysterious 



,•; 



THE STRATFORD MYSTERIES. 97 

sounds, which they termed "annoyances," to occur. 
On that same morning, however, a short time previous 
to my reaching the residence, a little child, the young- 
est daughter in the family, as she was going to school, 
observed a piece of paper, recently written upon — the 
characters not being dry — lying on the ground near the 
gate ; she ran back with it to her mother, who handed the 
manuscript to me soon after I was seated in the room ; 
and the following was the current of thoughts which 
flowed into my mind, as a partial translation thereof : 

1 • Fear not, when he returns, fear not, all danger is o'er ; 
We came, we disturbed thy house, but shall do so no more. 
Believe us not evil, nor good, till we prove 
Our speech to humanity — our language of love." 

The characters made upon this paper * resembled the 
written Chinese language in some degree ; but yet, on 
comparing the former with the latter, the difference 
was distinctly obvious. The communication was espe- 
cially designed to calm the anxieties of the parents in 
regard to their fears for Henry, who had once been 
made nervously ill from agitation (this was the only " dan- 
ger " referred to in the above message) ; and it also 
conveyed to them the wholesome counsel to suspend all 
udgment concerning the " evil " or " goodness " of 

* The length of this mysterious manuscript prevents me from fur- 
nishing the reader with a fac-simile. 
5 



98 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL LNTEECOUESE. 

those from whom these things emanated until the spirits 
themselves should demonstrate to the family and world 
their character and peculiar mission. In a postscript 
to this letter, which, although written on earth, was 
nevertheless dictated by spirits from a higher sphere, I 
also read, especially addressed to me, the following : 
" You may take this home ; the explanation will here- 
after come." I accordingly preserved the paper, of 
which I have received the entire translation. 

The manuscript above referred to contains three dif- 
ferent communications proceeding from three different 
spiritual societies in the second sphere, who seem to be 
commissioned to assist the earth's inhabitants to attain 
spiritual light and mental illumination. The first com- 
munication, which I was enabled to translate on the 
morning I received the document, as above related, is 
an admonition to the parents of these children ; whose 
physical and electrical state rendered it easy for a pecu- 
liar class of spirits to furnish at least inferior evidences 
of their presence, thereby making manifest their desire 
to cultivate a nearer and more intimate and therefore 
profitable acquaintance with humanity. To accomplish 
this very desirable object, they sought such " mediums" 
as they could make generally available, and, through 
them, accomplished such manifestations, and produced 
such phenomena as those mediums would admit of. It 



THE STRATFORD MYSTERIES. 99 

is, as I have already said, a species of magnetic telegraph 
which the religions and theological condition of the 
world at present requires. For the moral, scientific, and 
intellectual tendencies of the most advanced minds of 
this age are, to explore the far-extending and all-embrac- 
ing realms of infinitude ; and such minds cannot possibly 
stop short of the accomplishment and establishment of 
an actual commerce between the natural and the spirit- 
ual worlds, as between, Europe and America ; and in 
this the higher spheres of sciences, love, power, and 
intelligence, are making every effort to assist them. If 
in the beginning, some of the means of communication 
between the two worlds are imperfect and unsatisfactory, 
then let us help more and more to perfect and multiply 
those means, to the end that mistakes and misappre- 
hensions may be less frequent and less confounding to 
sensuous understandings. The second communication, 
recorded on this paper, is as follows : 

" WHO AMONG YOU WILL GIVE EAR TO THESE THINGS % 
^VUO WILL HEARKEN, AND HEAR, AND ASK, CONCERNING THE 
TIME TO COME ? " 

The third communication, which follows, was written 
more emphatically than those preceding it, and its inter- 
pretation reads : 

" Let all the nations be gathered together, and 
| let the people be assembled \ let them bring forth 



100 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

THEIR WITNESSES, THAT THEY MAY BE JUSTIFIED J OR LET 
THEM HEAR THESE THINGS AND SAY IT IS TRUTH." 

From the strength and beauty of the foregoing trans- 
lations we are led to infer, what many, very many spirit- 
ually minded individuals have long believed, that some- 
thing of importance to the social, religious, and philo- 
sophical world in general, is to flow through the magnetic 
channel which is now opened between this planet and 
the inhabitants of the Spirit-Country. But here it may 
be asked, by some of those who are following me in this 
investigation, " Did you know who the spirits were who 
made the manifestations in that house ? " 

To the inquiry of such readers I reply that, with my 
spiritual perceptions, I was enabled to observe, during 
my visits at the house in question, five spirits who were 
delegates from the spirit-land. Two of these were re- 
lated to the children — the mediums ; but the remaining 
three approached this family thus, not because they were 
related according to the ties of consanguinity on the 
earth, but because of a peculiar constitutional or organic 
affinity, or friendship, which existed between them ; the 
spirits were there, accomplishing their mission, by the 
principle of attraction and congeniality which draws like 
to like. At the time I beheld these spirits I was im- 
pressed that a train of circumstances would soon reveal 
to the family who some or all of these visitors were. I 



THE STRATFORD MYSTERIES. 101 

described, however, the personal appearance of one of 
their spiritual friends and visitants — not in accordance 
with the manifestations of the beautiful form he then 
wore, but the appearance of his former earthly form 
and features, a representation of which he permitted 
me to see in his memory with the express design to have 
me give a description of him, as he appeared on earth, 
which could be recognized by those who knew him here. 
It will be remembered by my readers, that an individ- 
ual experiences almost immediately— almost in the' 
twinkling of an eye — subsequent to his emergement 
from the earthly organism, a general alteration and 
change in the appearance and dimensions of his spirit- 
ual organization ; the latter — the indestructible body in 
which the spirit lives — becomes lessened, and improved, 
both in form and feature, to an extent proportionate to 
its want of symmetry and beauty previous to the event 
of death ! Hence it is that, to ascertain the exact ap- 
pearance of a spiritual individual according to his for- 
mer or rudimental existence, it becomes indispensably 
necessary to read from the tablet of memory^ which 
each spirit can and does present unlocked for that pur- 
pose, whenever it earnestly desires its personal history 
or genealogy traced to some particular period, event, or 
circumstance, of the past, pertaining to its earthly career. 
And thus was disclosed to me the lineaments once worn 



102 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIKITUAL INTEECOUESE. 

by the father of the children — Henry and his sister; 
and, by my brief description thus obtained, he was recog- 
nized .by the step-father as the former husband of his 
wife. 

The peculiar trivial and apparently motiveless char- 
acter of the majority of these manifestations — some of 
which are seemingly childish and without any distinct 
purpose — apparently so very human — constitute one 
powerful cause why many persons are moved to regard 
them as being altogether of earthly origin. In fact, I 
discover that a few of them are caused by mundane 
agencies ; because, simply, no gold is so pure that it has 
not its counterfeit and successful imitation. But, alas, 
much of the genuine manifestation is rejected because 
of the imperfect idea man has of spirit. The reader, 
doubtless, well knows that the general impression, with ' 
regard to those who have passed through the process of 
death, is, that they are, as it were, without form — a kind 
of melancholy ghost — gravely emerging from a sepul- 
chre, the spectral apparition of a thin, transparent, 
cloudy, vaporish combination of something, which may 
be nothing after all ; or else, a spirit is by most minds 
conceived of as being wholly immaterial, which term, 
when properly analyzed, is only another word for noth- 
ing. It is, therefore, a very serious fact, that the prev- 
alent opinions among mankind, concerning the condi- 



THE STRATFORD MYSTEKIES. 103 

tion and appearance of the departed from earth, are so 
erroneous, chimerical, and imaginative, that the general 
idea of a spirit is not, in fact, more real and distinct in 
form or substance than the air which we inhale. ■ Even 
those who, in the brilliant extravagance and partial 
nights of their ardent imaginations, describe angels with 
wings soaring through the heavens, are but giving to 
the airy elaborations of their own minds the wings of 
the eagle — their conception of angels not being emanci- 
pated from the animal kingdom in external nature. 
Many suppose that our breath is our spirit. Hence, it 
is not surprising that anything resembling mirth or 
pleasure, alleged to proceed from and to be manifested 
by spirits, is, at first, repulsed by the generality of reli- 
gious minds as altogether beneath the nature, dignity, 
and position of those heavenly visitants from that un- 
seen and mysterious world which lies beyond the grave. 
But this opinion — I am deeply impressed to say — is 
based upon superstition and theological error. The 
truth is — and it imparts a profoundly grand joy to 
know it — that every faculty of the human mind is ex- 
pressly designed for good ; and, in the spirit- world, as 
well as upon earth, these faculties are or should be sup- 
plied with the proper means for their righteous gratifi- 
cation. The merely passing from the natural body into 
the spiritual body does not deprive us of any of our 



104 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

aflectional or wisdom endowments. Nay, our faculties 
are immortal and endlessly progressive ; and tlieir ca- 
pabilities are enlarged and refined, beyond this incipi- 
ent life, to the end that we may the more enjoy the 
glorious realities consequent upon a continued, but more 
glorious existence. Even the most advanced spirits in 
the upper spheres are serenely joyous and cheerful ; 
and others not so progressed, as they become good and 
happy, are not the less mirthful. Nor will the spirits — ■ 
when they can approach us — wear a mask of false 
solemnity ; for they are natural as free ; and, being 
free, because they " know the truth," we are conse- 
quently not to suppose that they will ever treat our 
" serious " errors as if they were divine truths ; or, that 
any spirits will come to worship at the shrines of our 
idolatry, or pay particular respect to the theological 
idols which man, in his passage from savageism to the 
present era, has ignorantly erected, deified, and wor- 
shipped. 

These remarks I have been impressed to make with 
particular reference to several manifestations which 
have occurred at the reverend gentleman's house at 
Stratford, during the hours of prayer, especially at the 
very time when the family members were assembled 
to perform that ceremony ; and I allude, also, to many 
very surprising representations in perfect imitation of 






THE STEATFOED MTSTEEIES. 105 

these conventional gatherings. These tableaued group- 
ings consisted of figures very perfectly made from 
various articles of wearing apparel belonging to the 
family ; and each of the artificially formed personages 
was inclining or kneeling in graceful and solemn atti- 
tudes of prayer, It was necessary to approach them 
closely to be assured they were not living. These mys- 
teriously arranged exhibitions were discovered in the 
young lady's sleeping apartment, which was situated on 
the second floor of the building. And sometimes when 
the family members were at prayers, books have been 
violently thrown across the room ; and many noises and 
disturbances have been, at such times, developed so dis- 
tinctly and unexpectedly, as to beget the impression — 
only, however, in superstitious and erroneously educated 
minds — that the invisible beings and potencies in their 
midst, were positively and unqualifiedly " evil," — hav- 
ing no reverential regard for good things and religious 
institutions ; and, therefore, the ecclesiastical powers of 
the village decreed that the spirits should be repelled 
thenceforth from human habitations. And the people 
called them " devils," who had been expressly sent, 
many believed, by God, as a divine judgment upon 
the reverend gentleman because of the interest he 
has- for several years felt in the phenomena of human 
magnetism. Now, I am impressed with two reasons 



106 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

why these imitations and disturbances were made — 
First, in a family where the external ceremony as well 
as the. internal reality of prayer are esteemed as equally 
sacred, essential, and holy, it would be manifestly un- 
reasonable for the public to believe that any members 
of that household would regard this ceremony as a 
matter of no importance — even to the making of it food 
for mirth, however harmless that mirth might have 
been — as their unseen visitors evidently did. And the 
second reason is this, — the spirits are disposed to geutly 
teach the earth's inhabitants that there is but little 
reality in the mere ceremony of praying. For the 
artificially-made figures, grouping in prayerful atti- 
tudes, apparently worshipping, though mute and mo- 
tionless, distinctly pantomimed this impressive lesson : 
" Behold now, there is no more substance, importance, 
or reality in the mere ceremony which we are exhibiting 
than there is beneath these habiliments which compose 
us." 

I am impressed to affirm that spirits, being educated 
in truth, and in the perfections of Deity, as they are, 
have no more veneration for our sacred errors than we 
have for the stone and wooden gods of the barbarian. 

For seven vears I have been more or less in a condi- 
tion to associate with, and be influenced by, spiritual 
personages who are advanced beyond this life in every 



THE STRATFORD MYSTERIES. 107 

respect — in situation, cultivation, and intelligence ; and 
I know that I am justified by immutable truth in affirm- 
ing, that spirits are moved to respect only such prayers 
as are conceived and uttered in the most inward sanc- 
tuarv of our nature — in the interior "closet" of the 

■I 

soul, when " the door is shut " against every selfish and 
worldly sentiment, and when Love reigns over every 
desire and impulse — this is the only sanctuary in which 
prayer is pure and sanctified ! 

But here the questions arise, particularly in the 
minds of those who know of the alleged manifestations 
at Stratford. If these spirits design to teach such im- 
portant lessons to man, why do they not invent some 
other more dignified and less imperfect mode of com- 
munication ? Why do they throw stones, and knives, 
and forks, and spoons about ? Why do they rend the 
children's garments, break windows, etc., as it is known 
to a demonstration they have ? The answer to these 
very natural queries is exceedingly simple to my mind ; 
it is this : The position which the reverend gentleman, 
at whose house the phenomena were occurring, profes- 
sionally occupies before the world, and the respectabil- 
ity of his family in society, go toward making up 
many strong inducements for the whole household to 
combine to suppress and hush the many disclosures (all 
new revealed truths being unpopular, and therefore 



108 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

rejected by the world ) ; and thus the whole family 
would have motives for concealing from the public, as 
far as possible, all knowledge of the mysterious mani- 
festations. But the peculiar and determined character 
of those apparently trivial transactions were such as to 
render anything like a concealment of them positively 
impossible. It will be remembered that the direction 
to the inmates of this house was, " Let the nations he 
gathered together • let the people he assembled; let 
them take unto themselves witnesses, that they may he 
justified ; or let them hear these things, and say, It is 
Truths 

It is well that the reader should distinctly understand 
— and I will, therefore, parenthetically remark — that 
though the proprietor and occupant of this Stratford 
residence seemed desirous to get all possible instruction 
and knowledge concerning the nature and intention of 
these mysterious developments, yet — because the domi- 
nant sectarians of the village admonished him, with im- 
plied threats of a church trial in case he did not accede 
to their wishes not to encourage these " satanic opera- 
tions" any more — he refused to hear many of the 
translations of the mysterious characters read, which 
was the sole object of my last visit to the house in ques- 
tion. In fact, Dr. P 's situation was at that time, 

and even subsequently, in many particulars, extremely 



THE STRATFORD MYSTERIES. 109 

unpleasant and unsafe ; with the mob spirit of ignorant 
and despotic individuals on one side, and the sectarian 
spirit of scarcely less ignorant and consummate bigots 
on the other ; and the members of his family were not 
exempt from the bitter prejudices and unkind remarks 
which the so-called religious community of Stratford 
very readily generated. It was principally for reasons 
and considerations like the above, I think, that the 
Doctor refused to hear read my report of the investiga- 
tion, which contained the admonition — " let the nations 
be gathered together" etc., which I deemed necessary to 
the welfare of the family and the world. 

The house is now, I believe, without a tenant ; and 
the family have removed to the beautiful city of Phila- 
delphia. Whether the phenomena of spiritual manifes- 
tations still occur in the presence of the youth and the 
young lady, I am not now impressed to say ; but I con- 
sider them very excellent mediums; and, were I 
allowed to express my impressions with regard to them, 
I should favor the encouragement and cultivation of 
their vital-electro-magnetic condition, and thereby estab- 
lish a free and convincing communication between the 
inhabitants of our earth and those of the spirit-land. 
But this desirable end cannot be, in any case, accom- 
plished, while external circumstances, early education, 



110 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

and trifling contingencies, are permitted to act upon the 
human mind in the capacity of masters. 

By. the directions — " let the people be assembled — 
let them take unto themselves witnesses" — it will be 
perceived, that the family were, as they had also been 
in other ways and at other times, distinctly and repeat- 
edly admonished not to "hide their light under a 
bushel." These so-called mysterious things must be 
seen, and heard, and honestly acknowledged ; and the 
"light" which the witnesses thereof receive must be 
allowed to shine upon all those who desire to see the 
truth, without respect of persons, or reference to 
theology, sect, complexions, or nations. Again, the 
question will be asked, " Why do not the spirits write 
their thoughts in our language ? " And the reply is, 
that, as our language can be written by almost every in- 
dividual in the community, it would be very easy for 
some designing and mischievous person to commit a 
fraud ; whilst the peculiar style and novel characters 
which distinguish these written communications from 
that which the boy Henry, or any but a most accom- 
plished penman, could execute in their ordinary condi- 
tion, are sufficient to impress any reasonable and intelli- 
gent person (who should see the characters), with the 
serious and irresistible conviction, that wisdom and in- 
struction are hidden beneath, and designed to be im- 



THE STRATFOKD MYSTERIES. Ill 

parted by, those mysteriously drawn symbols of thought. 
And I am also impressed to assert, that, when it is clear 
to a demonstration that written communications can 
emanate from spiritual beings and super-mundane 
agencies, then the spirits will write in our language. 
Moreover, when they are no longer repelled from 
human habitations and minds, by obstructive doubts 
and superstitious fears, they may even approach so near 
as to orally pronounce many suggestive and affectionate 
words in the willing and prepared ear. The word 
" Selah " was written in English characters — perhaps, 
to manifest their ultimate intention of adopting this 
method of imparting thoughts and instructions to the 
earth's inhabitants. 

It will be asked, "How do spirits write upon 
paper \ " I am constrained to reply, in addition to the 
note on this point, that I attempted to ascertain who 
wrote two or three somewhat suspicious communications 

which I have seen from time to time at Dr. P 's 

house, but I could o\A^ feel attached to the sheets, as I 
held them in my hand, a general sphere which did not 
conduct me definitely and especially to any individual 
in or out of the terrestrial bod} 7 . When first I psycho- 
metrically examined the letter which I have above 
translated, I experienced something like the " sphere " 
of a person still living in the earthly body ; and I, then, 



112 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

concluded that I merely felt the influence which the 
mother's hand had impressed upon the paper when she 
took it from the child who found it at the gate. The 
precise manner in which some of the written communi- 
cations, as also the representative figures, which have 
been found in and about that house, originated, I am 
not now impressed to state. But I will here remark, 
that spirits can influence some peculiar organizations so 
as to induce a somnambulic state of mind, and then can 
cause the individual, thus affected, to do what he could 
not do in his natural condition ; and, upon releasing 
him from that state, they can, in the twinkling of an 
eye, efface from his external memory all impressions of 
the transaction in which he was instrumental ; and thus 
render him totally forgetful of what he has been doing. 
In this manner it is possible — and my impressions 
strongly move me to assert the probability thereof — 
that the spirits have employed some impressible person 
in that family, or in the Stratford community, to write 
some of those communications which were there re- 
ceived, also to arrange the expressive tableaux. Whilst 
I am not permitted, for some good reasons, to be more 
definite respecting them, I am positively assured that a 
comparatively brief time will disclose the all-embracing 
explanation of these apparently inexplicable things 
which have occurred in the midst of this family ; and, 



THE STRATFORD MYSTERIES. 113 

in the mean time, let it be duly remembered, that this 
thins: is certain — there is an amount of learning and 
extraordinary taste displayed in those Stratford manifes- 
tations, which, to believe that they all originated with 
the children, or with any other human agencies whatso- 
ever, requires far more credulity and hypothesis than 
are requisite to an admission and honest acknowledg- 
ment of their supernatural, or, more properly speaking, 
their supersensuous origin and character. In a manner 
peculiar to myself, I have ascertained, and, therefore, I 
know, that these wonderful developments were spirit- 
ually unfolded. 

The reader will remember, the already stated inter- 
esting fact in natural philosophy, that the physical sys- 
tem of the youth, Henry, at times generates a soft and 
-high quality of vital electricity, which renders him 
alternately positive and negative, and, therefore, a good 
medium through which spiritual intelligences could 
manifest their willingness and desire to approach, and 
communicate with, mankind. His sister's physical 
state is somewhat different. She seems to be more of a 
recipient, than a conductor, of the predominating ele- 
ments. It is also a curious fact — one especially worthy 
of notice and a philosophical application — that the 
youth's system was often suddenly relieved of its super- 
abundant electricity by the unexpected introduction of 



114 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

a stranger into the room — the close proximity of cer- 
tain individuals would invariably conduct this element 
from him ; and, generally speaking, the phenomena of 
throwing and moving various portable articles seldom, 
if ever, occurred either while his mind was anxious for 
exhibitions, or when he was very warm and unduly ex- 
cited. Here we are reminded, that, on all occasions, 
the mediums must remain perfectly passive, as to the 
time and nature of the manifestations, lest, by acquir- 
ing a too positive condition, they should render the 
demonstrations, for the time being, impossible ; and 
the same advice is likewise applicable to those who 
assemble to witness these things, or who may be living 
in the various localities where they are, or are likely to 
be, developed. 

There already has been, and there will be again and 
again, thousands of human things devised and enacted 
in the world in the midst of these spiritual ' devel- 
opments ; but not now can they be all unravelled 
and philosophically explained. Each individual mind 
must first grow into a discriminating knowledge of 
these things, and be able to distinguish for himself ; 
and, when the minds of thinking men become duly 
initiated into the laws and truths pertaining to spiritual 
life and endless existence, then — and only then — will 
an easy and simple explanation of all things be found 



THE STKATFOKD MYSTERIES. 115 

and comprehended. The people must be educated by 
their own experience. By these manifestations we are 
solemnly admonished to be cautious, wise, just, and dis- 
passionate in our investigations, and particularly in our 
decisions, with regard to those exhibitions which we may 
hear of or behold ; because the alphabetical and other 
sounds— as well as the written communications which 
friendly guardian spirits can and often will make to us 
through the agency of some electrical individuals— are, 
as 1 interiorly know, susceptible of an easy and almost 
indistinguishable imitation— the real suggesting the 
counterfeit. If this healthy and righteous precaution 
be at first in all cases observed, I am impressed to say 
that many good and truth-loving minds will be thereby 
saved from much mortification and disappointment. 
Let all men search out the truth— being " wise as ser- 
pents and harmless as doves;" let them not be con- 
;ent with a mere faith in the seeming, but let them 
*ek a knowledge of what is; and, above all, let not 
he discovery of the counterfeit cause them to reject the 
i*ue. Xay ; for where there is a Christ, there will be 
false Christs ; where there is gold, there is also its 
emblance. But let not the investigator— he who tries 
he spirits by Nature and Beason's principles— be dis- 
ouraged ; let him not turn back, for " he who seeks 
hall find ; " and the time has nearly arrived— is even 



116 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

now at the door — when the earth's inhabitants may 
hold communion with those whose " places here behold 
them no more ; " but who, from their exalted positions, 
may speak to us in our homes — at the firesides where 
we have so missed them — in the " circles " where once 
they gathered with us, and to which they now return. 
Let us not refuse to hearken to their voices when they 
call to us through such existing "mediums" here as 
they can approach ; neither let us refuse the incipient 
means designed to impress the human understanding 
with a clear realization of their existence and nearness ; 
for spirits have visited, and will continue to visit, the 
dwellers of earth ; and, ere long, many other mediums 
will be developed through whom the inhabitants of 
superior spheres may communicate their principles of 
truth and peace, and the most advanced human minds 
shall hear and understand ! And to the end that all may 
become recipients of heavenly messages, let all begin to 
form true characters, to adopt correct habits, to live just 
and noble lives. And let it be deeply impressed upon 
every understanding, that that individual who resists 
those spiritual influences which flow from the Great 
Love Principle, God, and who prefers the gratification 
of selfish and worldly desires to spiritual communion, j 
at last feels those gracious visitings no more upon the 
earth; and, in those lonely hours which bring re- 



THE STRATFORD MYSTERIES. 117 

flection, he will contemplate a "dark valley" before 
him — dark, because he refuses to see that inflowing 
and inextinguishable light which dissipates the " shad- 
ows of death," and the mysterious gloom of oriental 
error and theological superstitions. 



THE DOCTRINE OF EYIL SPIRITS. 



It is true that nearly all the communications and 
developments which have been thus far received 
through electrical vibrations, do not at first appear, to 
the advanced and generalizing mind, as possessing 
sufficient importance to demand much attention. The 
responses have mainly been very simple, and contracted 
to exceedingly laconic expressions of thought, which 
have frequently proved unreliable, and occasionally 
almost destitute of signification. These communica- 
tions are sometimes so trivial, and the replies, in some 
instances, so inferior in point of intelligence to the 
ordinary information among intelligent and practical 
men, that many believing and earnestly seeking indi- 
viduals almost despair of ever obtaining any valuable 
truths through the sounds ; at the same time — in con- 
sequence of those trivial responses — sceptics denounce 
them as arising wholly from human sources and pre- 
meditated deception. The general impression is that 
the Spirit-World would develop more dignified and 
soul-thrilling truths — that spirits would breathe forth 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVIL SPIRITS. 119 

only great and lofty thoughts ; that their replies to our 
questions would be more consistent with what we con- 
ceive to be the scope of the capabilities of those ad- 
vanced beyond this evanescent existence, and who come 
to ns as messengers (or angels) from a higher world ; 
and thus, notwithstanding the constant accumulation 
of evidences that spirits do in reality communicate 
through sounds — the sceptical mind, which may possess 
exalted sensibilities, is forced to encounter many very 
uninteresting and apparently meaningless developments 
in this new region of investigation. !Now, I confess to 
you, reader, that these things are truly great objections 
to the progressed intellect. But, I repeat, the religious 
want of this era is a sensuous demonstration of the 
truths of immortality ; and, upon serious and deliberate 
reflection, I think, the candid inquirer cannot but 
acknowledge that no method could possibly be more 
adequate or better adapted to the accomplishment of 
these ends, to the satisfaction of the general mind, than 
the asking of various test questions which are daily put 
to the spirits, and cheerfully answered by them through 
the electrical vibrations. Do you not think so, reader % 
A sound, responsive to yonr utterance of a loved name, 
gives sweet assurance that the spirit which is called upon 
both hears and answers. And just for one moment sup- 
pose that that answering intelligence spells out to you, 



120 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

alphabetically, by what are commonly termed "raps," 
given at every required letter, the name of its former 
place of residence on earth ; tells from what locality it 
departed this life, and mentions the disease or accident 
which caused its departure hence; counts you its age 
when it left the grosser form ; and says how many 
years, or months, or days, it has dwelt in a higher 
sphere, — I say, for the sake of the conclusion, just 
admit this supposition, and then ask yourself, are not 
these, and like answers, exceedingly convincing to 
those who search for a living evidence of the spirit's 
individualization and immortality ? Moreover, should 
the answers be such as the inquirer supposes, at the 
time, to be incorrect, but which he afterwards, by 
special reference to recorded facts, finds to be exactly 
true — as has frequently occurred — would not such a 
test be very satisfactory % Is it not convincing, even 
to the sensuous observer and materialist, that the spirit 
answering is still in existence; that the friend with 
whom intercourse is sought, is not dead, and decaying 
in the grave ; that immortality is indeed a truth ? And 
now, reader, what more is required? Is it that your 
soul would learn of the bright realities of the Spirit- 
Home % Do you seek acquaintance with the conditions 
and experiences consequent upon spiritual existence? 
Does your mind yearn after the nobler truths pertain- 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVIL SPIRITS. 121 

ing to the superior life and world? If so, then seek 
deeper sources — because you are prepared to graduate 
from the primary school of electric sounds into higher 
colleges of spiritual instruction ! 

Intercourse with the spirit- world through the elec- 
trical sounds is the most incipient and rudimental 
method which can possibly be adopted. Minds of the 
materialistic order — those individuals who will not 
believe in, or attempt the investigation of, anything 
which lies beyond the limited sphere and scope of the 
outer senses — are the proper pupils to attend the 
primary school of spiritual intercourse; which school 
is manifestly designed to educate the external man 
with regard to these germinal truths of spiritualism, 
which will conduct the mind progressively onward to 
the apprehension of more elevating realities — to the 
mighty truths and universal sweep of the Harmonial 
Philosophy ! And as in a primary school, where are 
taught the first lessons of earthiy education, there is 
noise — confusion — triviality / so likewise — in accord- 
ance with analogical reasoning — in the infant schools 
of spiritual knowledge, where instruction is mainly 
imparted through the electric sounds and correlative 
demonstrations, we also hear of disorder' — tumult — and 
discordant results. The manner — let it be remembered 

— of learning our earthly ABC does not differ very 
6 



122 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

much from the new method of learning spiritual things; 
only the latter school is attended by " children of a 
larger growth/' whose minds are more advanced in age 
and worldly intelligence. 

At first glance it seems, that to anticipate high results 
to flow from spiritual communications through sounds, 
is to expect ends which the means do not appear ade- 
quate to accomplish ; but, upon calm and philosophical 
reflection, it is manifestly as reasonable to hope for 
valuable issues from these small beginnings as to ex- 
pect oaks from acorns, or to anticipate the future lofty 
man when we gaze upon the new-born babe. " But," 
says the objector, " the communications are mainly 
without scope and importance, and are frequently con- 
tradictory and false," and he asks, " What is the 
meaning of this ? is it to demonstrate to our senses the 
existence of ignorant, wicked, or evil, spirits? — to 
demonstrate and thoroughly prove to us that the Spirit- 
World is no better than the Earth ? " Now here, seem- 
ingly, is a great problem — a matter, requiring much 
research, much wisdom, much explanation ; and yet I 
can assure the reader, that, to my mind, the real causes 
of contradictory and false communications are neither 
beyond the earth's inhabitants, nor difficult to explain. 
And as this is the subject now presented to my mind, I 
will proceed to its exposition. 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVIL SPIRITS. 123 

III the first place, it is necessary to understand that 
spiritual intercourse, through electrical vibrations, is a 
discovery as new to many of the inhabitants of the 
Summerland as it is to the dwellers on the Earth. 
The inhabitants of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (of the 
hitter especially) enjoy similar and far superior com- 
munion with those passed from their planets into the 
higher spheres. And the fair spirits of those bright 
worlds — advanced to a brighter land — confine their 
intercourse, chiefly, to the dwellers upon the Orbs from 
uhich they have been translated. And so those indi- 
viduals who have left our earth, still retain for its 
inhabitants a more particular affinity and attraction 
than they feel towards the dwellers on any other w T orld 
or earth. Hence, those spirits, who now have their 
homes in the spheres abcve, return to their respective 
birth-place planets more frequently and intimately than 
they visit any other of the inhabited globes of the 
universe. Though they may travel from star to star in 
quest of truth and knowledge — though sometimes a 
spirit, whose genealogy may be traced to earth, is 
attracted to communicate with one or more of the 
beautifully progressed inhabitants of the more advanced 
planets, or vice versa, an angel, passed from a more 
glorious world into that world's high heaven, may be 
drawn to seek communion with some mind on our earth : 



124 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

yet the rule seems to be that spirits particularly visit 
that world which was the cradle of their existence ; 
thus to commune with those who are dwelling where 
they once dwelt and who have not yet passed through, 
that process, called death — a translation — which shall 
admit them (the earth-dwellers) also into higher spheres 
of eternal life. And, therefore, it is, that, while 
spiritual communications are being (as they have 
been for many centuries) enjoyed through the elec- 
trical vibrations and in various other ways — including 
mental illumination, which is termed clairvoyance — 
upon the planets Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, the spirits 
that have passed from our earth have not, until very 
recently, known that such electrical methods could be 
adopted in the order of nature. 

The beatified soul intuitively knows that influx of 
truths and principles into the vessels of the mind is 
possible — proper — delightful — reformatory — and exalt- 
ing ; and the past religious history of mankind, as well 
as modern manifestations of spiritual insight and 
influence, distinctly indicate the countless efforts made 
by spirits to convince man of immortality and correla- 
tive truths. But that they could put themselves into elec- 
trical rapport with terrestrial magnetism and thereby 
establish a positive and negative relationship (by an 
action of their will-power) between themselves and 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVIL SPIRITS. 125 

individuals and inorganic substances in this world, is a 
truth which, by our own earth-born spirits, has but 
recently, to any extent, been discovered, and its prac- 
tical application studied. And here let me remark, 
that many, very many, erroneous and contradictory 
communications can be traced to this cause, viz. : the 
unadvanced education of many of the spirits themselves 
in regard to these rudimental things. Such spirits very 
frequently attempt to communicate their thoughts 
through the sounds — a desire which they necessarily 
so imperfectly accomplish as to be mistaken and mis- 
understood on the earth. 

It is very erroneous for any persons to imagine, as so 
many do, that spirits attain to an almost boundless 
knowledge as soon as they enter upon their new life. 
In the higher spheres, spirits must progress in Love and 
Y/isdom, just as, in this world, man advances in scien- 
tific aftd philosophical attainments. True, there is an 
expansion of the intellect, in proportion to its growth 
here, when it is transplanted to develop more and more 
in a clearer and brighter atmosphere ; and so many 
thoughts, which have agitated human minds more or 
less even since man first moved upon the earth, are 
readily perceived and comprehended by spirits ; and 
thus great principles are rapturously pursued into their 
endless ramifications, by the inhabitants of the higher 



126- PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

spheres. But still there are countless truths which the 
spirits, in general, do not quickly discover nor under- 
stand ; and, as they would " press forward to the things 
which are before," it is not so agreeable for them to 
turn to " the things that are left behind" — to contem- 
plate some of those truths which are nidi mental and 
pertain to mere material things and changeful sciences. 
When the human soul passes from earth into the 
second sphere, it is inclined, at first, to indulge in the 
gratification of its strongest love or impulse ; but unless 
it be a pure love, a good (or rather a right-directed) 
impulse, then the means of its gratification — I rejoice 
to say — are not to be found within the territories of the 
Spirit-Land — are not to be found within the range of all 
those things by which the initiated spirit is moved to 
learn the immutable principles of Love and Wisdom, 
and to live a life of eternal obedience to the laws of 
God, which are unchangeable — universal — harmonious 
— infinite ! But when the human soul enters the spirit- 
world with good passions (or affections) and impulses, 
then — and only then — is their gratification easy and 
unrestricted ; and progress may be made in one single 
direction for centuries. Some spirits become highly 
educated in that particular truth or science for which 
they feel the most absorbing sympathy and interest, 
while respecting other truths and sciences they may be 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVIL SPIRITS. 127 

comparatively destitute of information. For instance : 
in the great truths pertaining to comparative anatomy 
and physiology as unfolded in the animated kingdom 
of Nature — the same great principles and truths reach- 
ing far and wide in every direction, embracing the 
form and functions of the universe — in all these you 
will find Galen, and a host of similarly constituted 
minds, richly educated and accomplished. But you will 
not find Moses, or Isaiah, or St. John, possessing the 
same hio-h knowledge of these scientific truths. This 
class of minds, having a strong love for moral truths 
even while on the earth, continue still progressing and 
attaining in moral and spiritual directions. These 
great and highly accomplished minds have advanced as 
far iu searching out moral truth as Galen has pro- 
gressed in his investigations of scientific truth. Their 
goal is onward ; and, therefore, it is not reasonable to 
conclude that they, the great moral students — the 
alumni of the spheres — avail themselves of the electri- 
cal vibrations whereby to communicate their thoughts 
to congenial minds on the earth ; neither would they 
be likely to understand and skilfully manage the 
newly-discovered means and instrumentalities of com- 
munication as well as those spirits whose chief attrac- 
tion and education consist in scientific researches. 
Neither, suppose they themselves should communicate 



128 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

with man in this rudimental manner, would it be wis- 
dom to ask Isaiah a scientific question, or to interrogate 
Galen with regard to merely moral subjects, because — 
though their responses might be truthful — their style 
of answering would be consistent with the proclivity 
and pursuit of their minds, and the inquirer might 
possibly receive a wrong impression. And should 
there be a misunderstanding of the answers, then an 
explanation is not easy. Spirits cannot always make 
the human mind comprehend a subject in all its bear- 
ings; particularly when communicating through the 
imperfect, uncertain, and tedious method of spiritual in- 
tercourse by electrical sounds and manifestations. And 
inasmuch as spirits are neither infallible nor omnipotent, 
and are compelled to conform (when they endeavor to 
impart their thoughts through these electrical agencies) 
to the principles and conditions of this new method, 
which they Cannot altogether control, it is not safe at all 
times to depend on any given number of "raps"- as 
indicating a positive " yes " or " no," or any other par- 
ticular word or sentence. Because a spirit — perhaps, 
communicating for the first time, and being one who 
cannot readily learn the science of thus communing, 
but who greatly desires to answer a friend here — may 
not always be able to manage the sounds so as to pre- 
vent misunderstandings and apparent contradictions. 



THE DOCTRINE OF EVIL SPIRITS. 129 

Therefore, on the part of the inquirer, great vigilance 
and care are necessary to the end that the mind may 
not be misled. And let not any man's sensuous and 
uneducated judgment, with a ready and thoughtless 
condemnation, accuse those messengers from our future 
home of " falsehood " and intentional deception ; be- 
cause mistakes may arise, where explanation is now so 
difficult, in consequence of the infancy and newness of 
this telegraphic method of correspondence among the 
departed from the earth, now in the higher world, and 
in consequence, also, of man's present inability to 
wholly comprehend the laws, principles, and conditions 
of its action here. 



THE ORIGIN OF SPIRIT SOUNDS. 



By direct influx or impression from the highly ac- 
complished spirit of Benjamin Franklin, I learn that 
we owe principally to him the discovery of this electri- 
cal method of telegraphing from the second sphere to 
the earth's inhabitants. The substance of my comrau- 
• nication with him, on the 6th day of January, 1851, 
was as follows. I give his own words faithfully ren- 
dered : 

" In searching out," says that great mind, " the nu- 
merous manifestations of spiritual presence among the 
multitudinous sects and nations of the earth, I perceived 
that the great general principle of aromal intercourse 
had been observed, but never particularly understood, 
by spirits (the so-called inhabitants of this sphere) when 
they have from time to time communicated. In com- 
pliance with the great, inextinguishable love I feel for 
scientific research and exploration, I have steadily — with 
calm and fervent joy — progressed from point to point 
in this attainment by following the principles oipan- 
thea, or of electricity, into their innumerable windings 



THE ORIGIN OF SPIRIT SOUNDS. 131 

and diversified modifications. I have contemplated this 
element's mighty workings in Nature's great nervous 
system ; its passing from constellation to constellation, 
from planet to planet ; its wide and mighty sw T eepings 
from the inhabitants of the superior circles of the Sec- 
ond Sphere to the people upon the remotest worlds ; and 
in all its far searchings and multifarious operations I 
have seen God. These wonderful and soul-absorbing 
observations have also been made by individuals far 
more distinguished for intellectual accomplishments and 
discoveries than myself; though these minds had not 
yet studied the application of the panthea principles 
as the means of establishing a communication with the 
inhabitants of earth. But the time having now arrived 
when numerous minds upon that planet, the earth, were 
prepared by the advancements which the various sci- 
ences have made there — the magnetic telegraph appear- 
ing as a herald before — I suggested to my companions 
the propriety of demonstrating, upon that birthplace of 
the human mind, the doctrine of immortality ', to the 
end that man's ever-searching soul might there no more, 
in its early stages of existence, have its bright light 
clouded by the " shadows of death" — a gloom of ignor- 
ance which we, for want of palpable evidences, had 
ourselves experienced on the earth. And I proposed 
the opening of a material instrumentality which would 



132 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

be of universal use to those who might desire to hold 
communion with their friends on the earth; as all 
minds might be approached in this way, whilst only the 
few were approachable and reached by interior or men- 
tal communion. I found the German spirits most sym- 
pathetic to this proposition, and I informed the whole 
circle of congenial associates of my discovery, that nu- 
merous manifestations of spiritual power had been made 
to the earth's inhabitants, in ages past, by the panthea 
principle of aromal intercourse / but that the scientific 
method had not . been perceived, nor practised ; there- 
fore, that no permanent or essential results had as yet 
been obtained. I then listened to the serene observa- 
tions of Fenelon and William Ellery Channtng, who 
declared that, from their co-equal researches into the 
moral and spiritual necessities of mankind, it was their 
knowledge that, in case such aromal communication 
could be established, the people on some portions of the 
earth would listen, and be thereby advanced toward 
enlightenment, wisdom, unity, and truth ! Thus I was 
assured and positively encouraged that the time had 
arrived when our terrestrial friends had reached that 
point or apex of intelligence which would cause them 
to investigate whence could proceed the " sounds " — to 
search whence came the " manifestations " — and seek 
to understand and gradually practise the science of this 



THE ORIGIN OF SPIRIT SOUNDS. 133 

mode of " communication ; " and I was assured, also, 
that the time was now past when these new things 
would have been ignorantly termed demonism, enchant- 
ment, or witchcraft ; and that, in the place of the cross 
for the new, the scaffold for the strange and wonderful, 
there now stood erected, upon the earth, a broad and 
high platform, from whence the voice of truth went 
forth over all the land ! When I heard this, I likewise 
recognized that the people would not reject what they 
could not all at once understand, but that they would 
gather together to listen and to observe the effects point- 
ing toward superior and invisible sources of existence 
and power. On perceiving all this, I unrolled the prin- 
ciples of my discovery, and immediately proposed to 
select the proper localities and persons on the earth 
through whHi to begin the intercourse. First I accom- 
panied my numerous German associates to a position 
from which we (united in purpose as one strong mind), 
commissioned and directed, by an exercise of our voli- 
tion, an aromal current to produce vibrations in the 
house of a gentleman of distinction and learning in 
Germany. "We slightly moved the bed upon which he 
was then reposing! We operated upon his pillow, 
causing " sounds " resembling the dropping of water ! 
We caused vibrations or pulsative shocks upon his 
shoulder, and thus fairly awoke him; whereupon his 



134 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

agitation dissipated the aromal element which at that 
particular time his spirit exhaled, and which we had 
taken advantage of for our experiment. This put an 
end to our then communications. Several times subse- 
quently we visited the same place and person, but never 
again found external or terrestrial conditions favorable ; 
and our further attempts at that house and in that por- 
tion of the earth were without success. 

" "We now sought other localities. The great vitaliz- 
ing and energizing essences of all organisms in Nature's 
ascending kingdoms, are readily recognized by those 
who perpetually move in harmony with the expansions 
of the Divine principle. Nature's varied beauty and 
loveliness — the breathings of the all-controlling and all 
potentializing elements of the Great Divinity — are open 
to the inspiration and inspection of the progressed intel- 
lect and enlarged mind. And thus by realizing our 
multitudinous relations to, and sympathies with, the 
electrical conditions necessary to establish the aromal 
intercourse, we were attracted to various places — mostly 
in America. We succeeded in producing some slight 
' sounds' in Buffalo; but we could not, at that particu- 
lar time, effect there the desired results. We then tem- 
porarily placed ourselves in sympathetic connection with 
the most spiritually-minded in Cincinnati ; but we were 
not able to communicate otherwise than by influx to 



THE ORIGIN OF SPIRIT SOUNDS. 135 

them, and thus could influence only the few. We did 
not then find, in that city, the necessary and essential 
external and material conditions. 

" We now passed over Western New York. And 
particularly at Auburn and Rochester — perceiving there 
the required prerequisites — we opened the first commu- 
nications which have, to any extent, engaged the world's 
attention and interested the sceptical intellect. 

'* We rejoiced in the success of our experiments, es- 
pecially when we found that the sounds we occasioned 
were drawing numbers to inquire into their origin, and 
to seek out from whence they came ; but we could not 
prevent frequent misunderstandings. The people, in 
consequence of their excitement and ignorance of the 
spiritual causes of the intercourse would unconsciously 
to themselves glide into many erroneous decisions and 
conclusions ; which remain in the world even now un- 
corrected. Neither could we prevent the almost exact 
human imitations of our vibrations ; whereby occasional 
sentences were incorrectly spelled out — contradicting 
our directions to the c mediums,' and in opposition to 
several conditions which we specified as being essential 
to a proper intercourse through sounds. In the midst 
of our directions and communications c confusion ' has 
been i rapped ' out, and our characters for good and 
evil were (so to speak) in a measure often at the mercy 



136 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

of our mediums and terrestrial audiences. I have not 
myself produced many vibrations. 

" Since this method of sensuous communication has 
become • satisfactorily established, .whereby spirits can 
address the material senses of their earthly friends, 
great numbers in this sphere are constantly, and with 
enthusiastic joy, imparting thoughts and affectionate 
sentiments to mankind. Yea, the joys and gratifica- 
tions which flow from this new application of the pan- 
thea principle* into the different societies of our 
divine world, and coincidentally and simultaneously 
•into the hearts and understandings of many pure and 
constant minds on the earth, cannot be uttered — only 
experienced ! When the earth's inhabitants concentrate 
their intelligence and mechanical skill, and construct 
vessels and place them under the guidance of enter- 
prising and energetic minds, which gladly attempt the 
exploration of new countries and continents — discover- 
ing thereby more convenient paths or means of com- 
merce and national intercommunication — when men 
accomplish all this, and much more, and a whole nation 
is moved to gratitude and internal congratulations in 

* By influx, I learn from Dr. Franklin that the "panthea princi- 
ple " signified ' ' divine element ; " for spirits, he affirms, consider all 
elements as modifications of one great central PRINCIPLE of Love, 
Will, and Wisdom. 



THE ORIGIN" OF SPIRIT SOUNDS. 137 

cod sequence thereof, then is manifested, inoipiently, on 
earth something of that joyous sensation which thrilled 
the souls of innumerable minds in this Divine Land, 
occasioned by the announcement of the development of 
this new method of imparting beatifying thoughts and 
affectionate sentiments to the dwellers of the earth ! 
If mankind would obtain truth and righteousness 
through this new method, I admonish all to study the 
great sustaining principles which organize and control 
both matter and mind — to recognize and obey the un- 
changeable laws that govern the whole system of mate- 
rial and celestial existence. By these principles — by 
their unvarying teachings and lofty tendencies — the 
comprehensive and healthy mind may decide upon the 
truth or falsity of all assertions which refer to things be- 
yond the possibility of sensuous demonstration. Let all 
external manifestations be referred to interior princi- 
ples, which should be by all men considered as the 
methods of the Divine Existence. Progress in good- 
ness, wisdom, and truth ; and Fear not ! 

" Through thee, I now desire to remind the world of 
a remark that I once made to a very dear friend, while 
we were both residing on the earth. A scepticism of 
the intellect concerning the doctrine of the Immortality 
of the human mind — in a real and palpable state 
of existence and identification — long occupied my 



138 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

thoughts. I once knew what it is to be a disbeliever in 
the soul's future life. This doubt I seldom expressed 
to any one, not even to my most private friends. Be- 
cause 11 felt the necessity of a living faith among men ; 
I desired it more for others than for myself ; my un- 
derstanding seemed enough for my happiness ; and to 
apply it well, and without cessation, was the effort of 
my terrestrial existence. But one day —I remember it 
well — when my mind was filled with prophetic con- 
templations and anticipations concerning the scientific 
advancements, commercial improvements, governmental 
progressions, and the march of education, freedom, and 
intelligence in the Country I most loved, America — I 
felt a strong desire to behold my country's prosperity 
about a century from the time I conceived the thoughts 
of which I am now speaking. I therefore expressed a 
wish that some means could be discovered by which 
my physical body might be kept in a state of preser- 
vation — and I, a thinking being, be placed in a 
species of sleep — for the period of fifty years, when 
I desired to be awakened to a full realization of the 
advancements of Time and of its wondrous unfoldings. 
Let me now say, to those who remember this remark, 
that I have more than realized my every conception of 
future joy; and this signifies much ; for even while on 



THE ORIGIN OF SPIRIT SOUNDS. 139 

earth, my conception of joy never included the externals 
and superficialities of existence." 

The above is a truthful record of Dr. Franklin's 
statement concerning the origin and early progress of 
electrical communications, as accomplished by the in- 
habitants of the Spirit-Land. And, I think, from his 
explanation of the unavoidable derangements in the 
vibrations, that my readers already begin to understand 
why mistakes and contradictions are evolved from this 
new method of intercourse between the natural and 
the spiritual worlds. It will be perceived that one 
reason is, that the scientific principles and conditions, 
upon which the vibrations are accomplished, are not 
as yet familiar to, and are consequently more or less 
violated by, the many, very many spirits who avail 
themselves of the advantages of this new discovery with 
the desire to impart their affectionate thoughts and 
sweet assurances to their earthly friends. And another 
reason is, the occasional misapprehension of those com- 
munications by the recipients here of these messages ; 
and, then, there is necessarily much difficulty of explan- 
ation, owing to the tediousness and imperfection of this 
method of conversing with the departed. But many 
minds will question thus : " Why do not good spirits 
use precautions to successfully prevent these mistakes 



140 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTEECOUESE. 

from arising ? " Let us now proceed candidly and 
philosophically to consider this point. 

In the first place, it should be well understood, and 
constantly remembered, that spiritual beings — the in- 
habitants of the spheres — are, like ourselves, subject, in 
a subordinate degree, to surrounding influences and cir- 
cumstances ; that they progress in science, in philoso- 
phy, in theology, in morals, in spirituality, and in good- 
ness and purity, jnst as we advance from childhood to 
maturity ; and that, therefore, spirits cannot be (in 
principle) any more infallible than we are, except in a 
comparative sense or degree ; nor are they superior to 
some kinds of imperfection ; for only God is perfect, 
immaculate, and celestial ! And as it would be folly, here 
among men, to ask a little child some grave mathemati- 
cal or astronomical question, which the grown man 
could hardly solve, and expect from that childish intel- 
lect a correct answer ; so is it unreasonable to ask the, 
as yet, uneducated spirit of those profound truths with 
which the higher and more progressed inhabitants of 
the spirit-land are alone familiar. It is true, that what 
each spirit has learned since it has become a resident in 
the second sphere, is correct and reliable as far as that 
knowledge extends, but the mere translation of a soul 
from this life does not render it either omniscient or 
omnipotent; and spirits are, therefore, as incapable, 



THE ORIGIN OF SPIRIT SOUNDS. 141 

under some circumstances, of controlling influences and 
preventing misunderstandings as we are. Consequently, 
for their impartations of thought, the spirits require 
good surrounding influences through which they can 
approach us ; and this is as necessary for their commu- 
nications, as it is essential for our right comprehension 
and appreciation of them, that we possess minds un- 
biased, by prejudice, free from sectarian bigotry, and 
open to the reception of truth ! It must not be expected 
that spirits can communicate their thoughts, and, at the 
same time, control our apprehension of them ; nay, 
though they ardently desire to be rightly understood, 
they cannot change the operation of this general prin- 
ciple, namely, that truth, like water, will inevitably 
and invariably take the form of the vessel into which it 
flows. Hence, it is not in their power to prevent the 
vast dissimilarity of impressions which one truth may 
produce upon many different minds. 

And there is another essential reason why palpable 
contradictions are so often made through the vibrations 
or sounds. Such inconsistencies are attributable to the 
large class of sympathetic spirits, — I mean, those spirits 
who, though passed from earth, are not yet emancipated 
from strong ties and terrestrial attractions, and who, 
consequently, when they approach a " circle " of friends 
assembled to commune with them, become so involved 



142 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

in the concentrated " sphere " of the minds of the indi- 
viduals composing that " circle " as to assent to almost 
everything which the questioners desire them to affirm. 
In evidence of the correctness of this statement, I could 
adduce hundreds of instances where the spirits, com- 
municating through the sounds, have said at one time 
what they subsequently most positively contradicted. 
Theological interrogatories have been put to them ; and 
at one session of a meeting of inquirers, and under one 
class of circumstances, answers were elicited to suit the 
pre -impressions or predilections of the majority of 
,minds constituting the Circle; but at another session, 
and under a new class of influences, the former answers 
were modified or contradicted to an extent generally 
proportionate to the preponderating convictions and doc- 
trinal education of the questioning and listening minds. 
On several occasions (which I will not now particularly 
designate) I perceive occurrences something like the 
following : 

A circle is organized for the purpose of eliciting a 
certain kind of theological communication ; a member — 
in behalf of the association — inquires, " Will any of the 
Apostles communicate with us? " 

Bap, Rap, Rap! Or, three sounds, meaning, as they 
comprehend it, an affirmative. 

"Is St. Paul present?" 



THE OKIGIN OF 6PIEIT SOUNDS. 143 

Raps, supposed to signify, "yes." Then follows a 
succession of sounds, punctuated by different distances 
of time between some of them, regarded as " his signal." 

Now, the secretary of the meeting produces his well- 
written and well-arranged sentences, in the form of in- 
terrogatories, and, reading one of them at a time, he 
asks : 

" Is this true ? " 

Three Raps (or yes), are his answer. Again, coming 
to a question, which all the circle expect will be neg- 
ati'ved by the spirits, as being unqualifiedly untrue, the 
secretary inquires, with a doubtful emphasis : 

" Is this also true ? " 

A single " Rap," meaning " no," is the immediate re- 
sponse ; and the record thereof is accordingly made. 

The above has been presented to me as a general rep- 
resentation of the manner in which a great variety of 
theological and doctrinal questions have been put to 
spirits, and responded to by them, in accordance with 
the preponderating " creed " of the circle which is or- 
ganized to receive the communications. And I am 
here impressed to answer a question which must invol- 
untarily arise in the reader's mind: "How is it that a 
spirit like St. Paul — so positive and so advanced as lie 
necessarily must be — should respond to questions thus 
sympathetically % " This point I have been led to care- 



144: PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

fully investigate ; and at no one of the circles referred 
to do I discover, upon the most critical interior retro- 
spection, a single communication from the veritable 
apostle Paul, nor from any one of his glorious compeers. 
But I find a friend or a relative of some person or per- 
sons in the circle, in sympathetic communication with 
the members at the meeting, and answering the ques- 
tioner. In human magnetism or psychology, this sym- 
pathy of one mind with another is clearly exhibited. 
And the same law which acts in that case, is universal 
and binding, as with a golden chain, the material and 
* spiritual universe into one harmonious whole. For fur- 
ther illustration of this point, I refer the reader to 
" Great Harmonia," vol. i. p. 199, where this philoso- 
phy is more particularly explained. But let it here be 
understood, that, as an individual in the outer world 
can be magnetically and sympathetically acted upon by 
surrounding influences and individual minds, so are a 
certain class of loving, but undeveloped and unadvanced 
spirits, in the inner world, capable of being acted upon 
magnetically and sympathetically by the positive idio- 
syncrasies of anxious persons who enter the circles for 
spiritual intercourse through the sounds. If the princi- 
ples and conditions of these electrical communications 
were not so very material, as they have been shown to 
me, then sympathetic or affectionate spirits would not 



THE ORIGIN OF SPIRIT SOUNDS. 145 

get so readily and thoroughly involved and psycholo- 
gized by the positive magnetic mental sphere of the cir- 
cle and the interrogator. Those spirits who dwell more 
in divine Love than in divine Wisdom — if young in 
spiritual growth — are easily influenced to feel precisely 
what the majority of minds in a circle feel and think. 
Now St. Paul, having nearly attained to " the fulness of 
the stature of the perfect " spirit in the second sphere, 
and dwelling there in divine Wisdom — should he, that 
glorified spirit, really attempt to impart his thoughts 
himself through electrical vibrations, there is no doubt 
but he would be mo-re positive than any circle of friends 
that could be formed to receive his impartations of ex- 
alted truth. But the Apostles do not, themselves per- 
sonally, come into electrical relations with any earthly 
circle ; they do not seek to converse with mankind in a 
so material and imperfect manner ; but, clothed with 
ambassadorial authority, they visit subordinate societies 
in the second sphere, and they instruct the spirits there 
— in those societies — how they (the latter spirits), 
through the new electrical method, may demonstrate to 
their friends on earth the real reality of a spiritual exis- 
tence, and of the happiness and sublimities consequent 
upon a passage from the first to a second sphere of life ! 
And this is the one great object of the so-called spiritual 
" rappings," and other demonstrations of the same class. 



146 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

For when it becomes universally believed that the 
Spirit-World is near in its influence to our earth, and 
that spirits from that land are with us and about us — 
that their watchful love overshadows us, that their affec- 
tions enter in at the open doors of our hearts, so that 
our homes are no longer closed against them — then will 
the higher results of that blessed belief be manifested 
in greater and sublimer developments of Truth, wisdom, 
and spirituality among men. Self-love, which now so 
governs in the world, will then expand into universal 
affection ; and the present developments of mere exter- 
nality and materialism will change to progression m 
spiritual wisdom ; and the sun of righteousness shall 
have arisen in its glory on the earth — the coronal man- 
ifestation of this philosophical connection and delight- 
ful correspondence between the spheres ! 

In the present state of the world's belief, many intel- 
lects will think that they must be " evil spirits," who 
come announcing and representing themselves to be 
other than they are, and assenting to doctrines and 
thoughts of which they have no certain knowledge, 
thereby leading the people astray, and contradicting 
themselves. But I am impressed to assure my readers 
that this whole problem can be truthfully solved with- 
out admitting into the premises either " evil " or neces- 
sarily " ignorant " spirits ; only those, among our de- 



THE ORIGIN OF SPIRIT SOUNDS. 147 

parted friends, who are kind, affectionate, and very im- 
pressible—as the most tenderly loving dispositions almost 
invariably are — and this is the class of spirits which are 
mostly drawn to seek intercourse with the circles of 
friends and relatives here who assemble for communi- 
cations. Nor must we admit into our reasonings or 
faiths anything like the existence of " evil spirits," or 
spirits who wish to lead or seduce mankind into false 
and dangerous directions; because there are no abso- 
lutely evil or false spirits in any department of God's 
beautiful universe. To the reader this may appear only 
in the light of an unwarrantable assertion ; but to me 
it is a known truth. 

On this head, erroneously educated minds — those who 
have not outgrown their early imbibed educational 
prejudices — will exclaim : "But how do we know this? 
— we have not our < spiritual perceptions ' opened and 
cannot therefore gaze into the innumerable abysses of 
infinitude, and decide for ourselves — how, then, shall 
we know that there are no evil spirits ? " And I would 
answer those who have thus hitherto based their faith 
upon the traditions of the past, that it does not require a 
particular spiritual insight to decide this question ; for, 
as has been shown in other portions of this volume,* 

* Reference is here made to "Great Harmonia," vol. ii. — issued 
soon after the publication of this work. 



148 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

there are no elements in the soul which can be proved 
to be intrinsically evil — no affections which entertain 
any real sympathy for unrighteous things ! This posi- 
tion I know to be invulnerable. Hence all the evil and 
corruption in this world are referable to a misdirection 
and a wrong application of intrinsically good and divine 
elements or impulses which reside in the human spiritual 
constitution. I am consequently constrained to assert, 
that man is a temple of the Holy Ghost, and the Holy 
Ghost is in man. Moreover, it is positively unrighte- 
ous to term misdirection " evil " — because, the latter 
word is immersed in un philosophical and erroneous as- 
sociations. We are educated in the past and present 
world-established church to associate " evil " with a 
" devil" or with demoniac beings, which are altogether 
mythological; and thus, by retaining and using "old 
bottles," we cannot but keep at least the flavor of the 
" old wine" with them. But it would be well, since we 
have " new wine," to break the old vessels and procure 
" new bottles ; " for this is the only way to prevent an 
admixture of truth and error in our philosophy of evil. 
Dropping the metaphor, I simply mean that we should 
reject the term " evil," and substitute misdirection in 
its stead : because the latter term is truthfully and phi- 
losophically expressive of the cause of those falsities and 
corruptions which swarm in human society. Let us now 



THE ORIGIN OF SPIRIT SOUNDS. 149 

follow tills subject of evil spirits still further. The 
reader will surely remember — and I know his reason 
cannot but acknowledge the naturalness of the state- 
ment — that all spirits and angels were once men like our- 
selves ; that God has unfolded and populated the spirit- 
ual worlds by operating upon and through the material 
universe — -just as the luxuriant harvest is obtained 
from little germs, or as the gorgeous summer flowers 
unroll from beds of stone and clay. Therefore, since 
there are no spirits — no angels or archangels — which 
have not had an earthly or rudimental origin ; and 
since it is incontestably demonstrated that there are no 
intrinsically evil or fiendish principles, passions, or im- 
pulses in man's interior nature, we are constrained to 
conclude that it is impossible that there should be evil 
spirits existing in any of the great realms of the spirit- 
ual universe. In this age of man's progression and de- 
velopment on the earth, let the oriental doctrine of 
" total depravity " be banished from our midst. Surely, 
no advanced mind now entertains a belief in that myth, 
because it is known to all healthy reasoners that all the 
falsities, corruptions, and contradictions in human soci- 
ety are truthfully explainable only by reference to their 
three great and lamentable causes, namely — ignorance, 
misdirection, and misunderstanding. How, then, can 
the intellectual mind, in this era of human knowledge, 



150 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

be so unreasonable and unphilosophical as to rush into 
the mythological doctrine of evil spirits as the only 
possible method of accounting for falsities, contradic- 
tions, and inconsistencies, in the so-called spiritual rap- 
pings ? Surely, the mind, resorting into that maze of 
ignorance, would find a much more difficult problem to 
solve, than he who intelligently perceives how plainly 
truth unravels these seeming mysteries. Truth is sub- 
limely simple, and leads into no intricacies ; and those 
who follow in her paths — with but the natural percep- 
tions — will doubtless perceive that spiritual insight is 
no more required to decide the question of evil spirits 
than the Bible is necessary to the discovery of a ninth 
planet, But the logical intellect, which can readily 
understand that the spiritual universe is an out-birth 
of the material universe. — and knows that the spirit- 
land is peopled by spirits whose genealogical history 
can be traced to some earth in space, — such a mind 
must acknowledge, that, inasmuch as the doctrine 
of " total depravity " is false in the natural world, so 
the philosophy of the existence of evil spirits in the 
spiritual world cannot be true. 

But there are different degrees of enlightenment and 
spirituality in the various societies of the spheres be- 
yond life's first stage, even as there are different planets 
from which spirits emanate ; and from each and all of 



THE ORIGIN OF SPIRIT SOUNDS. 151 

those planets the myriad souls — moving in the vast 
ocean of human existence — are dissimilar one from 
another, differing in brightness and in beauty. Several 
centuries ago this truth in our philosophy was impress- 
ively stated, and we were eloquently told that every thing 
has a purity, a "glory" of its own ; and, by that glow- 
ing orator whose words have readied to our clay, we are 
counselled not to denounce earthly things as evil or cor- 
rupt -merely because they are earthly ; for every created 
thing hath its own perfections and glories. And he 
proceeds to say that " there are celestial bodies, and 
bodies terrestrial : but the glory of the celestial is one, 
and the glory of the terrestrial is another^ And, as if 
to illustrate by metaphor the different degrees of per- 
fection and divine enlightenment of the spirits in the 
spirit-laud, he tells us that " there is one glory of the 
sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory 
of the stars ; for one star differeth from another star in 
glory."' And again, to enforce the sublime doctrine of 
eternal progression and development — to illustrate that 
the human soul is perpetuall} 7 ascending from one de- 
gree and scale of perfection to another, and to explain 
to us that man, when his body dies, leaves his moral 
misdirection and misunderstandings principally on the 
earth, as he leaves his physical pains and diseases — this 
fervent teacher affirms, in these words : " So is the res- 



152 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

urrection of the dead : it is sown in corruption, it is 
raised in incorruption ; it is sown in dishonor, it is 
raised in glory ; it is sown a natural body, it is raised 
a spiritual body. . . . And as we have borne the 
image of the earthy, we shall also hear the image of 
the heavenly. . . . For this corruptible must put on 
incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortalit}^. 
. . . Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is 
written, Death is swallowed up in victory ! " 

This impressive passage I quote from Paul — not be- 
cause he is supposed by Christians to be above Nature 
and Reason in authority — but because his analogical 
reasonings, assisted, at that time, by his newly-awakened 
intuitions, moved him, centuries ago, to the eloquent ut- 
terance of those truths which lie within every human 
soul. It is a joy to, find, in past eras, the existing intu- 
itional perception of those glorious truths which have 
become matters of demonstration in this more pro- 
gressed period of the world. In Paul's style of ana- 
logical reasoning, we may continue to say, truthfully, 
" We are born in ignorance, but we shall progress unto 
knowledge ; we are dwelling in misunderstandings, but 
we shall obtain wisdom ; we live in this world in mis- 
direction, but we shall attain unto harmony ; we believe 
in evil here, but we shall think better hereafter ; we 
live and move in darkness on the earth, and stumble 



THE ORIGIN OF SPIRIT SOUNDS. 



153 



into many errors, but in the spirit-land we shall have 
light, and the immortal radiance of truth shall guide us 
forever." Thus, sentence might be added to sentence 
in amplifying the philosophy that all evil is but imper- 
fection tending to its ultimate perfection. But enough 
has been already said to satisfy the logical mind that, 
even without entering the " superior condition " — to in- 
vestigate upon a higher platform what the spiritual eye 
can see of these immortal truths — the intelligent nat- 
ural perceptions — the material senses — here discover to 
us, and innumerable facts demonstrate, that the doc- 
trine of evil spirits is fabulous, and, to the rightly edu- 
cated, truly religious mind, it is blasphemous and preju- 
dicial to the progression of thought and intelligence. 



CONCERNING SYMPATHETIC SPIRITS. 



In pursuing our investigation of the subject of sym- 
pathetic spirits, let me not be apprehended as affirming 
that all communications, received through the vibratory 
sounds, emanate from this class of minds in the second 
sphere, or that even those impressible spirits are under 
all circumstances governed in their decisions merely by 
sympathy. Neither do I affirm that all spirits, thus 
communing, can be involved or psychologized by the 
positive mental sphere of a circle ; but I am impressed 
to declare the fact, that there is a certain class of un- 
advanced spirits who, under peculiar circumstances — 
the very electrical medium of communication favoring 
the process of psychology — will say precisely what the 
questioning minds of the circle may ardently^ and, 
therefore, positively desire ; and this is one reason 
why palpable contradictions are sometimes spelled out 
through the electrical vibrations. And here many will 
say, " It is sad that we cannot more implicitly rely upon 
the spirits." To such I would reply— let us not blame 
them, but rather ourselves ; for we — or some other mem- 



CONCERNING SYMPATHETIC SPIRITS. 155 

bers of the circle — do not comply with the conditions 
upon which the spirits promise to faithfully respond to 
us. Again and again are we told, that perfect passive- 
ness — a subjugation of our prejudices and anxious feel- 
ings — is necessary that we may obtain truthful and re- 
liable communications ; and, when these conditions are 
not fulfilled, a disappointed experience reminds us that 
we have violated and deranged the prescribed laws of 
these communions. In truth, when we are anxious or 
impatient, we become intellectually positive, and then 
we exhale a magnetic atmosphere, while we inhale the 
necessary electrical emanations which rapidly exhaust 
the presiding medium, and the communications are 
thereby deranged — becoming, as many persons have 
frequently observed, contradictory and confused, and, 
perhaps, for the time being, altogether arrested. 

Affectionate spirits — those dwelling in the Love- Cir- 
cles in the second sphere — are most negative, electrically 
speaking, and are therefore more readily influenced to 
approve the desires of the hearts of those with whom 
they commune on earth; whilst, on the other hand, 
those spirits that dwell in the Wisdom Circles are very 
positive, and are therefore incapable of being involved 
in the mental atmosphere of any earthly minds. This 
principle of sympathy is illustrated in all divisions of 
human society ; it is daily exemplified in our midst. In 



156 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

our homes, the infant will, by virtue of its cries and 
positive entreaties, captivate the affectionate, and, per- 
haps, intelligent mother; who consequently will forth- 
with coincide with her child's desires — submitting her 
judgment to its powerful appeals ; whilst at the same 
time, the resolute father is unmoved by its tearful en- 
treaties — he only considers what is best for its welfare, 
and acts in accordance with his convictions. We would 
not hence charge that mother with a moral obliquity, 
nor are we to esteem the father as possessing a greater 
moral rectitude. The explanation of the } 7 ielding ten- 
derness of the one, against the unbending sternness of 
the other, is to be found in the respective organic con- 
formations and mental developments of the parents. 

Again, let us, from our homes, go into the popular 
revival religious meetings and further observe there the 
workings of this great psychological principle of sym- 
pathy. The clergyman, with " his big, manly voice," 
is positively and dogmatically enforcing the doctrine of 
his creed : the awfulness of Divine justice ; the awf ill- 
ness of Divine vengeance ; the awfulness of hell ; the ter- 
rible awfulness of hell-pnnishments ; the awful magnifi- 
cence of heaven ; the awful necessity of salvation ; and 
the awful pivotal means upon which the whole scheme 
turns ; whilst he threatens the fearful consequences of not 
accepting those means forthwith. These and similar 



CONCERNING SYMPATHETIC SPIRITS. 



157 



themes are represented by the speaker, the powerful psy- 
chologist, to his audience, his generally passive and at- 
tentive subjects, with all the glowing beauty of brilliant 
language and the sublime strength of a positive tempera- 
ment. Fascinated by his intellectual power, one after 
another draws nearer to the altar. Near by sit two 
equally honorable men ; both intelligent, but differently 
constituted. The one listens and meditates with an al- 
most provoking indifference ; the other is moved to the 
centre of his soul — his gesticulations express agony — 
the preacher has drawn a picture of awful terrors and 
has powerfully daguerreotyped it upon his mind, he 
sees the awfulness there represented, and the shadow 
is to him as a reality. Now let us examine into this. 
The unmoved individual has a cold, resolute, positive, 
intellectual organization — he is more positive than the 
speaker ; and therefore that speaker cannot awaken in 
him false compunctions of conscience. He cannot 
convince the honest man that he is an " awful sinner." 
But this good man's equally good and honest neighbor 
possesses a fine, impressible, elastic, affectionate organi- 
zation — he is very negative to the eloquent preacher, 
and hence " feels everything the minister says to be 
true." Those very positive speakers always affirm what 
they pronounce; it gives weight to their words, and 
invests them with a seeming authority. And what is 



158 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

the consequence of this psychological result? It is 
simply this : that good man, that impressible and affec- 
tionate mind, is thrown into a frenzied state of moral 
contrition. He has hitherto been superior to the utter- 
ing of what was untrue ; but now he rapturously pro- 
nounces falsehood after falsehood. He says, " I'm 
under divine condemnation," which is not true. He 
says, " I'm inwardly depraved ; " which is not true. He 
says, " I've been always a great sinner ; " which is not 
true, for he was once an innocent child, and of " such is 
the kingdom of heaven." He says, " God is angry w r ith 
'me ; " which is not true, for " God is love," and bitter 
and sweet, or love and hate, cannot now from ore 
fountain. He says, " God's spirit is striving with 
me ; " which is not true, for he is simply psychologized 
by the speaker, to see everything respecting his own 
state invested with awfulness, and himself as under the 
divine wrath and condemnation. At last he calls aloud 
" O, I see the Holy Spirit ! " which is not true ; his 
vision is only affected by mental delirium tremens, 
arising from the excessive intoxication which the pow- 
erful preaching has produced upon his nervous system. 
And now, still moved by the controlling influence 
in the assemblage, he exclaims, " O, thank God, I am 
forgiven ; " which is not true, had he sinned, for no 
transgressions against nature's laws can be forgiven; 



CONCERNING SYMPATHETIC SPIRITS. 



159 



they can only be outgrown by personal progression and 
development. And thus the highly honorable and 
truth-telling member of society is captivated by the 
positive sphere of the clergyman, united with that of 
those of his congregation who think with him, and is 
thereby made to utter many falsities and contradictions 
which, I trust, no one, at this day of scientific enlight- 
enment, will attempt to account for on the ground of 
moral obliquity, or total depravity. I^or will any 
minds, except those who believe in mythological theol- 
ogy and supernatural interpositions, pronounce the other 
individual to be incorrigibly wicked and graceless, 
simply because the exhorter was not sufficiently positive 
to throw him also into a psychological state. There is 
no doubt, however, that if that firm and calm tempera- 
ment could have been affected by the united mental 
force of numbers so as to have been made to feel " what 
the minister said " was true, he would have arisen a 
spiritual Samson in his strength, and with a still more 
powerful eloquence, he would have psychologized many 
other minds — he would have completely subdued all 
those who had already been sympathetically acted upon 
by the clerg} T man — they being negative to this accom- 
plished convert, and yielding readily to his influence. 
Thus an entire congregation could be, by the propaga- 
tion or dissemination of this sympathetic magnetism, 



160 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

thrown into unparalleled emotion; and the whole phe- 
nomenon would be ignorantly attributed to the direct 
interposition of the " Spirit of God " or the Holy 
Ghost. 

Let the advanced intellect correctly understand, 
rightly appreciate, and not condemn this action of mind 
upon mind ; let us not call evil those kind spirits from 
the second sphere who sometimes impart contradictory 
thoughts through the sounds, because they are no more 
to be blamed for so doing than was the impressible 
good man, above mentioned, to blame for yielding to 
the power of the preacher. The contradictions only 
admonish us that we have inadvertently, or otherwise, 
deranged the equilibrium of the physical conditions on 
which the communications are made. Surely, there is 
nothing in all this to attribute to demoniac agency ; 
there is nothing evil in such sympathy ; it is the golden 
chain which binds all sentient existences together ; and, 
if we would prevent all misunder 'standings and mis- 
takes in our communings through sounds, let us conform 
to the great positive and negative principles according to 
which all sympathy is harmony. It is a beautiful link 
in that everlasting chain — a principle, whereby those 
spirits, who are as yet but members of the Love-circles 
in the second sphere, respond sympathetically to the 
heart's desires ; like the fond mother they would bestow 



CONCERNING SYMPATHETIC SPIRITS. 



161 



a present joy ; and this same principle of sympathy 
which has so often moved affectionate spirits to coincide 
with the wishes of the positive questioner, is the same 
as governed Unth when she uttered those magnanimous 
expressions of tender devotion, " Whither thou goest, I 
will go ; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge ; thy 
people shall be my people. a,nd thy God my God." As 
you would not pronounce liuth evil for this beautiful 
manifestation of affectionate sympathy, so should you 
not term evil those loving and impressible spirits who 
have acquiesced in our wishes and convictions because 
influenced so to do by the positiveness of our questions 
and entreaties. Thus it has been shown that there are 
three active causes of contradictions in these spiritual 
communications, namely : 

1st. The ignorance of many of the spirits concerning 
the science of producing the vibrations / 

2d. Our frequent misapprehension of the precise 
thought the spirits design to convey through the sounds / 

3d. The presence of affectionate spirits who uncon- 
sciously glide into sympathy with the feelings and de- 
sires of the interrogator. 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 



Let us now proceed to consider how circles may be so 
formed as to avoid misapprehension and discord. We 
are taught that, in order to obtain good and lofty com- 
munications, it is positively essential that our thoughts 
and intentions be also good and elevated. A child-like 
simple heartedness, a manly, open, and free-mindedness, 
combined with an honest love for truth, are indispens- 
able prerequisites. Moreover, it is essential that the 
circles be always organized and internally constructed 
upon positive and negative principles. x\s there are 
twelve elements and attributes in every human soul, 
abstractly considered, so should there be tvjelve persons 
constituting a circle ; the twelve consisting of six males 
and six females. This distinction of male and female 
is not so essential to be observed with regard to sex / 
but six of the number should possess the feminine at- 
tributes of character which are negative and affectionate, 
and the others should be deeidedlj' masculine, having 
the positive and intellectual temperament. Male and 
female are positive and negative principles / and the 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 163 

terms should not be applied and confined exclusively to 
mere organizations ; for some individuals who wear the 
physical vesture of the male are, in their characters, 
females ; and vice versa. 

And first, in forming a circle for individual improve- 
ment and spiritual communion, the " medium," through 
whom " sounds" are made, and the clairvoyant who can 
discern spirits, should be situated at the head of a table. 
Then let the person whose electrical temperament is 
usually indicated by cold hands, and who possesses a 
mild and loving disposition, take his or her position on 
the immediate right of the medium or clairvoyant, upon 
whose immediate left should be seated one of a magnetic 
or warm physical temperament, being a positive and in- 
tellectual individual, and so let all the six female prin- 
ciples be situated on the right, and all the six male 
principles having their places fixed on the left, of the 
particular mediums, not exceeding two in number at a 
circle ; which mediums do not count among the number 
of twelve above specified. It is necessary that each per- 
son of the reunion be temperate in all his habits, free 
from intoxicating or stimulating beverages ; not suffer- 
ing from pains or aches, and passive as to the results of 
the meeting. 

These circles should not make their sessions more fre- 
quent than twice a week ; because those things which 



164: PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

become too familiar are thereby deprived of their sanc- 
tity, and hence also of their power to benefit the assem- 
bled individuals. The masses know not how to always 
associate respect with familiarity. For this reason it is 
good for most people, that " angels' visits are few and 
far between ; " because, were they as common as sun- 
light, or the possession of all our senses, man y minds, I 
regret to say, would not only fall into a state of ingrati- 
tude, but they would neglect to properly appropriate the 
perpetual blessings flowing therefrom. Therefore, it is 
necessary to be careful that a too great intimacy with 
these things does not occasion an inappreciation of them. 
Let the sessions of these circles of Love and Wisdom be 
conducted with a religious dignity and harmony ; which 
high conditions do not at all prohibit cheerfulness, in- 
telligent mirth, or conversation. Let music, elevating 
and gladdening, also enliven and lift up your hearts, to 
the end that spirits may participate in the melody of 
your souls, and echo in heaven the harmony of earth. 
Let your assemblages be indeed harmonial circles, 
where discord may not enter ; carry not there any un- 
kind feelings ; take not there, to mar the beauty of those 
meetings, any sensations of envy or jealousy; let no 
feelings of unforgiveness against a brother or a sister, be 
found by the angels in your souls, darkening the light 
within ; and remember that not for these occasions only 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 



165 



can you divest yourselves of selfishness, envy, jealousy, 
unkindness, and unforgiveness — there is no occasional 
dress for the soul ; if you would substitute, for those de- 
formities, the beautiful spiritual vesture of love, and 
gentleness, and purity, then you must make such your 
familiar attire. The mind has no particular Sunday 
habiliments ; therefore as you clothe it for every -day - 
life, thus must it go adorned to the sanctuary. 

I am impressed to further direct that the rooms where 
the circles meet should, as much as possible, be retired 
from all noise and interruption ; that they should also 
be darkened, so that the persons present, not having 
their minds attracted and diverted by external things, 
may the more easily concentrate their thoughts upon the 
object for which they have met together. Moreover, it 
would be well for the members of these circles of Love 
and Wisdom to provide themselves with a fine magnetic 
cord. This will entertain, and amuse, and at last, per- 
haps, develop their mental powers. 

The Directions for making and using the Magnetic 
Cord. — Get about five yards of a three-quarter-inch 
rope ; cover this rope with silk or cotton velvet ; and 
wind abound it, parallel with each other, two wires, one 
of steel and the other of silver or copper. Have the 
space between the wires about one inch and a half, and 
let them be wound about a quarter of an inch apart. 



166 



PHILOSOPHY OF SPIKITUAL INTEKCOUESE. 



The harmonial circle of friends may sit uniformly 
around the table, and let the magnetic rope lie on their 
laps, their hands upon or grasping it, and the one 
which is constitutionally most susceptible to spiritual 
influx of emotion and influence, will feel a throbbing 
in the hands ; and ultimately, by repeated experiments, 
some one among the company may be rendered clair- 
voyant. I am not impressed to make any distinction 
with regard to the age of the individuals who enter into 
these spiritual associations. But manipulations will 
assist the impressible person to receive the propagative 
magnetism of the circle ; they will, also, greatly aug- 
ment the mental tendency of the subject to enter one^ 
of four states, for which his organization may cherish a 
normal predisposition ; viz., the sympathetic, the neuro- 
logical, the psychometrical, or the superior condition. 




In addition to the foregoing directions, 1 recommend 
the above diagram as representative of a " model circle" 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 



167 



which should be formed in every community and in 
many families. After one circle is constructed, and the 
members have had a few evenings' experience, it will 
then be very easy to adopt such new measures and modes 
as the spirits, communicating through the vibrations or 
by influx into the understanding of a clairvoyant, may 
suggest and direct. The diagram represents a table, 
with two mediums at the lower end, and twelve mem- 
bers — six positive and six negative principles or persons. 
The fine line, which connects the individuals, represents 
the " magnetic cord," the influence of which is to estab- 
lish and preserve an equilibrium of vital electricity and 
vital magnetism throughout the entire circle. Let it be 
understood that the undeveloped mediums, or the already 
developed clairvoyants, are not to grasp the magnetic 
cord, because they are the substances or needles (if I 
may be allowed the expression) which the magnetism 
and electricity of the twelve members are to act upon, 
just as the horse-shoe magnet acts upon the piece of iron 
or steel. As soon as the circle of positive and negative 
principles or individuals shall have fully charged those 
who take the position of " mediums," then the latter will 
inevitably be thrown, by the descension of the higher 
influence of spirits upon them, into a proper condition 
to impart " impressions " to the circle, or else to become 
the r mediurn through which our invisible visitants from 



168 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

the spirit-world will cause electrical vibrations to be 
heard, and thus communicate their thoughts to man. 
When the cord has been held for one hour, the members 
may then cast it aside and join their hands. Another 
good method is — all the members may lay their hands 
on the table, palm downward ; and each person in the 
circle allowing his left to remain under the right, and 
his right to rest upo?i the left, hand of the contiguous 
individual on either side of him. Do this for a period 
not less than twenty minutes. 

In the midst of these re-unions when the electrical 
sphere of the circle is rich and harmonious, the members 
may rest assured that guardian and affectionate spirits 
will descend, and sometimes come personally into the 
room. I have observed, with my spiritual perceptions, 
as many as eighteen spirits present at one session of a 
circle in the City of Bridgeport, Connecticut ; and, at 
the time of their actual presence with us y there was a 
large congregation of friendly spirits who, from a dis- 
tance of eighty miles (about thirty miles above the 
atmosphere of our earth), directed a mighty column of 
vital electricity and magnetism, which current, penetrat- 
ing all intermediate substances, passed through the roof 
and walls to the apartment where we were seated ; and 
there, by a process of infiltration, entered the fine parti- 
cles of matter which composed the table and raised it 



THE FOEMATION OF CIRCLES. 169 

several successive times, three or four feet from the 
floor ! Tliis circumstance of the table being so raised, 
can be testified to by the members of that circle. It is 
not, however, my object to prove the fact of these spirit- 
ual manifestations (for of the facts of such occurrences 
thousands are already convinced by the existence of suffi- 
cient evidence) ; but my impression is to furnish the 
philosophical explanation of them j and hence I seek no 
particular or individual testimonies, because the entire 
phenomena now before the world, whose light may not 
at this day be hid, constitute one grand living demon- 
stration that spirits do communicate with mankind. 

There are two classes of spirits who generally visit 
the at present established terrestrial circles. First — 
such spirits as have, in those circles, relatives according 
to the law of natural consanguinity, and such as feel 
attracted to us by ties of conj ugal and spiritual paternal 
affection. Second— those spirits that are delegates from 
the higher circles of wisdom and progression in the second 
sphere — I mean (as Swedenborg has expressed it) repre- 
sentative or " subject spirits," who come to communicate, 
where a few have met together here, those messages to 
man which emanate from the superior societies of the 
inner world. The higher angels do not themselves 
come into immediate electrical relation with any terres- 
trial association of minds, but mediately by and through 



170 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

representative spirits. This mediatorial manner of com- 
municating would not be adopted in higher circles here, 
could they at present be formed, consisting of spiritually 
enlightened and illuminated minds ; because, with these 
conditions existing, an immediate communication could 
be established between those higher angels and the mem- 
bers of such a truly harmonial circle, by direct spirit- 
ual influx and impression. To attain to this eminence 
the circles formed should press forward to the attain- 
ment of knowledge ; no fetters of creed and doctrine 
should stay their steps in progression. Truth will lead 
them into the broad fields of infinitude — into the illimi- 
table expanse of Nature. And who among you will 
weary thus advancing — there investigating? Who will 
let a bolt or a bar, which superstition or bigotry may 
have placed in the way, arrest the mind's far searchings 
after God ? Who will close the clasps of his Bible, 
and say, " Thus far will I go and no farther," in seeking 
after truth ? Who will thus pronounce sentence against 
himself, and rest satisfied ? Will any man remain con- 
tented with words — words, which are at best but the 
drapery of truth — the shroud which " darkeneth coun- 
sel " ? No ! man's ever-searching, never-resting, eternal 
mind will not thus confine its investigations ! " Words 
without knowledge " shall not set bounds to thought. 
The undying soul shall be taught forever from the ever- 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 171 

lasting volumes of Nature as one after another they un- 
fold to its growing capacity. And mind shall study 
those books which are never closed, never ■" clasped with 
a clasp"— the ever-open pages of God's Eternal Word! 
This education cannot be too soon commenced ; and 
spirits from higher spheres will assist in such tuition of 
the human mind, and will pour knowledge from above 
into the expanding intellect of the young immortal here, 
who by his own virtuous efforts reaches unto them, and 
thus becomes a pure recipient for the inflowings of truth ! 
Tims can the angels teach man; though, on the earth 
but few, as yet, have been so taught to any extent, be- 
cause of the as yet generally materialistic intelligence 
that only seeks for knowledge in the outer world, which 
pursuit diverts attention from the inner-life-, and thus 
all the avenues and receptive vessels in such minds are 
kept closed against an influx of thoughts and impressions 
from spirits who would otherwise impart to us of 
heavenly things. Let us go to the earth-formed circles 
for spiritual communications as to an^el-schools. Let 
us not go there with positive minds to impress our teach- 
ers, but let us attend as passive pupils that we may be 
impressed; and then, according to our capabilities of 
reception, will be imparted to us a higher or a lesser 
knowledge. Let us wait patiently the impactions of 
the spirits, and not anticipate too ardently. Let the 



172 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

very impressible person present be careful that, by an 
over-offieiousness of his, accompanying a quick percep- 
tion of what the spirit is about to do, he does not inter- 
fere to assist in accomplishing that design, by which act 
the spiritual manifestation would be forestalled or ignor- 
antly and unintentionally interdicted. One of these 
circles for improvement and investigation w T as recently 
formed in the City of Hartford, Connecticut, at which 
was present the •■ medium " who had presided at the 
meeting of friends in Bridgeport, where the above-re- 
lated interesting occurrences were developed ; but, not- 
withstanding the harmony of the positive and negative 
arrangement of the different individuals in the later or- 
ganized circle, no such startling manifestations occurred, 
in consequence of the medium being, during nearly 
every session of that circle, exceedingly susceptible to 
the mental sphere and magnetic power of spirits. By 
this magnetism his perceptions were quickened, and he 
would at times instantly perceive, and sympathetically 
perforin, what the spirits contemplated to do them- 
selves, and thus, by his quick action, arrested their neces- 
sarily slower accomplishment of the design. This cir- 
cumstance gave rise to many doubts and a few evanes- 
cent misapprehensions ; but it was nevertheless a deeply 
interesting demonstration of the power of spirits to in- 
fluence, under some circumstances, the human mind and 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 173 

direct its faculties of volition. We have noticed the 
power of this influence on the boy at Stratford, Connec- 
ticut, who, like the medium just referred to, would of- 
ten sympatJietically do what the spirits desired them- 
selves to enact ; and, at times, he was so magnetically 
affected by them as to be made to accomplish some 
things which, though particularly designed to do him 
and others good, were not always, at the time, regarded 
with a favorable eye. This leads me to briefly notice a 
very interesting kind of spiritual magnetism which some 
persons of a peculiarly negative temperament and or- 
ganization are adapted to receive. I refer to spiritual 
communications which some individuals receive by sen- 
sations rather than by sounds, through the electrical 
medium which pervades the nervous system. Such per- 
sons do not exhale, from the galvanic batteries of the 
nervous organization, a sufficient quantity of vital elec- 
tricity whereby spirits can make the sounding vibrations. 
There is a certain state of mental susceptibility, in 
which man's nervous system is exceedingly impressible ; 
and those spirits who are now pursuing the study of 
these things, and discovering to what extent their powers 
ean operate upon organic and inorganic objects, will ad- 
dress such a sensitive mind through a breathing impres- 
sion, or a wave-like vibration made upon the sea of 
nerves in the physical organism. A person, subject to 



174: PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

this psychological phenomenon, can converse with spirits 
and obtain answers from them, by vibrations or waving 
breathings which pass through the nervous system up to 
the brain, and awaken there- thoughts by impression. It 
is a happy and useful combination of conditions, when 
an enlarged intellect and truth -seeking mind are united 
to this peculiarly susceptible nervous temperament ; for 
in that case heavenly results will flow therefrom. 

The spirits of the various planets in our solar system 
are in different stages of refinement. And those that 
are on the higher have the privilege of descending to 
'the lower planets, and immersing their thoughts into 
the spirits of the inhabitants at will, though the latter 
in many cases know it not. In this manner do spirits 
descend to, and dwell on, the earth, w T hen they have a 
peculiar attraction to some relative or friend ; and they 
are ever ready to introduce into his mind thoughts of 
higher things, and suggestions that are pure, though 
these may seem to the person to now independently 
from the workings of his own spirit. Spirits from any 
sphere may, by permission* descend to any earth in the 
Universe, and breathe sentiments into the minds of 
others which are pure and elevating. Hence it is that 
there are times when the mind appears to travel in the 

* That is, on conditions that the principles of spiritual affinity be 
complied with. 



THE FORMATION OP CIECLES. 175 

company of those it knows not, and has visions in its 
dreams that are actually true, and sometimes come to 
pass with remarkable accuracy. At other times, dreams 
are incited by the influx of thoughts from spirits, but 
are not defined, because they are not duly directed. 
There is, however, a species of dreaming which is un- 
caused by anything except an excitement of the ner- 
vous medium or consciousness of the body. Such 
dreams are only unquieted thoughts, and wild and fan- 
tastic formations of thoughts preimpressed into visions 
and fancies. 

It is a truth that spirits commune with one another 
while one is in the body and the other in the higher 
Spheres — and this, too, when the person in the body is 
unconscious of the influx, and hence cannot be con- 
vinced of the fact ; and this truth will ere long present 
itself in the form of a living demonstration."* And the 
world will hail with delight the ushering in of that era 
when the interiors of men will be opened, and the spirit- 
ual communion will be established such as is now being 
enjoyed by the inhabitants of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, 
because of their superior refinement. 

When the reader comprehends the philosophy of spir- 
itual intercourse, and understands the great principle of 
mental affinity or gravitation in accordance with which 

* See u Nature's Divine Revelations," page 675. 



170 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

all communication between the inhabitants of the Ma- 
terial and Spiritual universe must uniformly be devel- 
oped, then he can, with an understanding heart, turn 
to the Primitive History and read : " Now, concerning 
spiritual gifts, brethren, I' would not have you igno- 
rant There are diversities of gifts, but by 

the same spirit.* And there are differences of adminis- 
trations But the manifestation of the spirit 

is given to every man to profit withal. For to one 
is given by the spirit the word of wisdom ; to another 
the word of knowledge by the same spirit ; to another 
the working of miracles ; to another prophecy ; to an- 
other discerning of spirits ; to another divers kinds of 
tongues ; to another the interpretation of tongues " — 
and thus the reader will begin to see (through the clouds 
of words and diction which surround and obscure 
thoughts) the great harmonial principles of spiritual 
intercourse as intuitively conceived of by those whose 
contemplations have been, and are, lofty and exalted. 

One type of intellectual or psychological phenomena 
which the inhabitants of this world may expect soon to 
witness, is very properly described in the following 

* The good Apostle, by particular influx, informs me that the 
sentence — "but by the same spirit," should be everywhere read, 
" but by the same principle ," — thus giving- mankind to understand that 
all spiritual manifestations are but modifications and diversified devel- 
opments of one universal and unchangeable law of Nature. 



THE FOKMATION OF CHICLES. 177 

letter which I recently received from a very worthy 
and intelligent gentleman, residing in the State of New 
York. During the last eighteen months I have re- 
ceived numerous letters, describing singular and posi- 
tive instances of spontaneous somnambulism and trance, 
which instances naturally arrange themselves nnder the 
head of involuntary clairvoyance. And the directions 
which I have been impressed to institute in this pamph- 
let, for the purpose of eliciting spiritual communica- 
tions, will apply very properly to nearly all subjects of 
these mental and spiritual phenomena. The writer of 
the following letter accompanied his statements with 
reference to various citizens of New York City, and 
otherwise furnished sufficient external evidence that his 
averments are perfectly truthful. It will be perceived 
that this case (which the gentleman describes, without 
intending his communication to appear in print) pre- 
sents the most certain and unmistakable evidence of the 
existence, in the mental constitution of man, of discern- 
ing powers far excelling in their scope and quality the 
vision of the outer senses. The finding of the " mourn- 
ing ring " which " had been in the earth a great many 
years," and " other gold pieces," is a practical and sen- 
suous demonstration of spiritual perception of facts and 
things, without the aid of the corporeal organs of dis- 
cernment, which the external and superficial investiga- 



178 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

tors of this era have so long and vehemently demanded. 
But this is only one instance among hundreds which 
might be cited as evidence of the actuality and prac- 
ticability of faculties of interior vision, immanent in 
every human mind. 

Waterford, N.Y., 3d Feb., 1851. 
Mr. A. J. Davis : 

Dear Sir, — 

I am influenced solely by a motive of public good 
in addressing you. I will be brief. There is now living 
on # one of my farms, a lady of most extraordinary mag- 
netic condition. I was made acquainted with her in 
the summer of 1849 ; and spent most of that summer in 
her house. She is entirely (or nearly so) uneducated, 
and has been afflicted with what her physician denom- 
inated " hysteric fits." She had been treated by him, 
without the least success, for four years. At the 
time I speak of, her symptoms were as follows : She 
would suddenly lose all her consciousness of the identity 
of those around her (their appearance being changed), 
her countenance flushed — wildness of the eyes — and 
evetything appears to her of a green color. Sometimes 
the hand will convulse so strongly that she cannot let 
go of whatever she may have grasped. Other times, 
the convulsions will run down the arm into one hand, 
then into another, and pass from one member of the 
body to another — to and from the tongue, arms, etc., 
etc. — w T ith the velocity of electricity. In this " waking 






THE FORMATION OF CIECLES. 179 

state " — she is often very fluent in conversation — filled 
with lofty sentiments of honor. Her bearing is proud 
and exalted ; her countenance often transcendently 
bright, her eyes beaming with a sweet and almost super- 
human lustre. Suddenly she drops from this condition 
into a kind of mesmeric sleep — when convulsions fre- 
quently ensue, and then, after a short time, she awakes. 
I have held her hand at such times, and the sensation is 
like the shoclc from the galvanic battery. I said she 
lost the identity of her friends. Yes, but while in this 
condition, without seeing a person, the moment her 
friends touch her hand she knows them. 

I invited this lady to my house, satisfied in my own 
mind that it was a case of "Self-Magnetism" — or 
" Spontaneous Magnetism." She had been at my resi- 
dence, perhaps, an hour, Avhen she went into this condi- 
tion. I have no time to relate what occurred, — suffice it 
to say — that she became lucid, and truthfully related 
the transpiration of distant events ! She also stated 
that she saw a gold ring, and directed us to it ! We 
found it, in the road, by her personal aid on the spot, 
ten inches below the surface, in the hard ground. *This 
road runs over a place that, forty years ago, was a buiy- 
ing-ground. This ring is an old-fashioned mourning 
ring, and bears evidence that it had been in the earth a 
great many years. She also found other gold pieces. 
But I cannot go into details — I am fearful of troubling 
you. But what I wish to bring more particularly 
before your mind, is this : While under treatment for 
" hysterics "(!) she greatly surprised me one day by her 



180 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

steady gaze, and the extraordinary expression of her 
countenance — nothing can surpass the beauty of that 
expression. She said, when questioned, that she saw 
her father (who was dead), and described the "Spirit- 
World " (on her recovery from this condition) in a style 
peculiarly your own. Is there not something in this 
case that may he made of benefit to mankind? The 

name of this lady is Mrs. Hannah . She is 

highly esteemed for her many virtues. 

Pray, sir, let me hear from you on this subject. 

Yours truly, P. J . 

The class of spiritual phenomena to which this lady's 
state and manifestations properly belong, is one that 
should arrest the attention of scientific men — men, who 
are not altogether absorbed in the effects of principles, 
but rather in the interior moving causes. It will be 
perceived, by those who read works on psychological 
science, that history contains many similar instances of 
spiritual magnetism and spontaneous illumination of 
the internal powers of the understanding, primarily 
caused by nervous impressibility and disease. For in- 
stance — I find many important discoveries and revela- 
tions among the Germans — owning very much to their 
peculiar habits of thinking, and of investigating all 
seen and unseen laws and operations of [Nature ; and 
among them have been persons whose interior percep- 
tions were so unfolded as to enable them to recognize 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 181 

the reality of the spirit-world, and its close connection 
with this rudimental sphere. One should be noticed 
particularly, because her mind was in a condition occu- 
pied by all at the period of death or transformation. 
She is known as the Seeress of Prevorst — and has re- 
vealed many truths concerning the connection between 
the natural and spiritual world, and between the soul 
and body : and concerning the powers of spiritual per- 
ception, and the medium by which the spirit is united 
with the form. Her interior and natural state were, 
however, too frequently confused and blended to ele- 
vate her conceptions of the other life much above her 
early education ; and her intense sufferings were, also, 
lamentable barriers to a perfect ascension of her spirit 
into the tranquil sphere of Truth. These things are 
too important to escape the attention of any inquiring 
mind ; for they manifestly involve evidences such as 
mankind at present need to satisfy them of the powers 
of the soul, and of other physiological truths.* 

If the reader desires to comprehend the principal 
causes of what is customarily called Salem Witchcraft 
(as it occurred Many years ago), then let him investi- 
gate the phenomena of spirits acting upon human minds 
hj first addressing their will and electrical elements to 
the nervous system of the subject. This process, though 

* See " Nature's Divine Kevelations," p. 584. 



182 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

no mystery now, was a few years since — especially in 
Salem — regarded as the open manifestation of Satan or 
of some strange malady, closely connected with demon- 
ism or enchantment. In former periods of the world 
the subjects of these spiritual communications either 
through the mediatorial agency of the nervous system, 
or the electrical vibrations, would legally be condemned 
and compelled to pass through the trials which the un- 
fortunate Salem mediums experienced. But the age of 
religious intolerance is past ; the rack and the rod are 
powerless means of sectarian torture ; and the honest 
man is now permitted (particularly in America) the 
gratification of thinking and speaking as his reason and 
conscience dictate. The human mind is now more than 
ever the Lord of Creation. 

The physiology of the mind — its laws, tendencies, 
forces, and functions — should early engage the attention 
of him who, according to popular standards of judg- 
ment, takes the position, and acts in the important ca- 
pacity, of a physician. I am persuaded that the lady, 
who has been so long treated for " hysterics/' is more 
capable, in her moments of ecstasy or illumination, of 
prescribing for herself than any physician in the coun- 
try. In order to develop her powers harmoniously, 
I refer those who can take charge of her interesting 
case, to the directions for forming circles, which, if fol- 



THE FORMATION OF CIECLES. 183 

lowed, will quiet her present state of excitement and 
bring her mind into a high state, favorable to periodical 
and useful illumination. Let her become a member of 
a circle; and, in a few sessions, she will doubtless yield 
to its soothing magnetism. Manipulations are not in 
such cases required. 

Miss , of Connecticut, has recently experienced 

the influence of spirits upon her physical system. 
Yielding her mind to passiveness, she has received sev- 
eral very interesting communications. The origin of 
this phenomenon in her own case she describes as fol- 
lows — I introduce a brief history of her experience in 
this place as illustrative of & principle of action which 
any impressible individual may adopt with the indwell- 
ing wish to obtain personal evidence of spiritual presence 
and power. 

At the suggestion of a female friend, who supposed 

she had been similarly acted upon by spirits, Miss , 

after retiring for the night, laid her arm on the outside 
of the bed, with this desire : " If there be any spirits 
near me, will they manifest their presence by moving 
my hand?" A few nights passed without any results. 
At length one night, as her arm lay carelessly and pas- 
sively on the bed, she experienced an invisible attrac- 
tion operating upon her hand, and, by not interposing 
her will to restrain its motion, the unseen power moved 



184 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

her arm about in various directions. This interesting 
evidence of spiritual presence was furnished her repeat- 
edly, and uniformly at her request. Having become 
almost perfectly convinced that her experience did not 
proceed from her own volition or imagination, she re- 
solved to venture farther, and requested the invisible 
beings to supply her with appropriate " signals " for a 
negative and an affirmative, that she might hold con- 
verse with theni. This desire was immediately re- 
sponded to by the spirit who acted upon her arm and 
hand, conveying the latter to her chin and then to one 
side in an almost horizontal direction. She concluded 
that one motion signified " yes," and the other " no ; " 
but did not know exactly how to understand them ; and 
asked, " Does the first motion mean an affirmative ? " 
and her hand was directly conveyed to her chin, and 
then, as before, moved off in the side direction when 
she desired a negative. She now believed that, if these 
motions did in reality originate with spirits, her hand 
might as easily be conducted to the different letters of 
the alphabet. Accordingly she chalked out the alpha- 
bet on the cover of a chest, and placed herself near it, 
in an easy posture and tranquil state, with the quiet 
wish that something might be spelled out to her. Soon 
her hand was moved and placed upon a letter, which 
she recorded ; then upon another, and another, until a 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 185 

clear and consistent sentence was constructed. She 
affirms that at first she did not preconceive of the letter 
to which her hand was being conducted ; nor did it then 
occur to her what word the spirits designed to spell out 
in this novel manner. However, after a little experi- 
ence, her mind readily conceived of the letter, and then 
of the word, which was to be given her ; and thus, by 
direct mental impressions, many very beautiful admoni- 
tions and affectionate sentences or communications have 
come from the spirits of the departed, through her, to 
their friends and acquaintances on the earth. She has 
received numerous "signals," each of which indicate 
the immediate presence or influence of some particular 
spirit. These signals consist of divers motions into 
which the arm, hand, and fingers are carefully and 
gracefully thrown. She says she can easily resist these 
motions by an exercise of volition ; but such resistance 
is almost invariably attended with heavy achings and 
pain in that member of her body which the unseen 
power had previously manifested a disposition to move. 
I am impressed to consider this lady's experience* as 
typical of a class of spiritual phenomena which many 

* She does not feel it to be her duty to devote her experience to 
the world, and hence I purposely conceal from the public her name 
and residence. I could adduce the testimony of her most intimate 
friends to substantiate these statements, but this is deemed unneces- 
sary. 



186 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

persons will ere long develop and present to the world. 
And I am also impressed to regard her manifestations, 
not as demonstrational evidences that spirits are near 
this earth, and can communicate with its inhabitants, 
but rather as an illustration of a Truth with which nu- 
merous minds are already sufhciently impressed — and 
who, consequently, are no longer in search of " tests " 
and " evidences," but who desire to hear from friends 
in the Spirit-Land, and to live in constant harmony 
with the immutable principles of Love and AVisdom, by 
which alone the heavenly hosts are actuated and gov- 
erned. 

The following passages will illustrate the character 
and impressiveness of most of her communications — 
the first two which follow purported to come — as I 
know they did — from the spirit of a gentleman who re- 
cently died in California, addressed to a brother in this 
world, and were received on the 8th and 9th of Feb- 
ruary, 1851 : 

" My brother dear/ the spirit-world is indeed a world 
of harmony / and where harmony is, there is happi- 
ness ! In the pursuit of hnowledge, let wisdom he 
your guide, and you will progress to meet me in the 
second sphere. Let love prevail over all imkindness/ 
Love and hatred cannot dwell together — one will con- 
sume the other ! 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 187 

"3Ty brother, — there are beauties in the spirit-world 
far exceeding human conception, and language is too 
feeble to give them utterance? 

To the reader the above communication cannot pos- 
sibly contain anything like that internal evidence of 
truthfulness and signification which the earthly brother 
felt, and knew it to possess, on its reception ; also he 
was deeply impressed with the following : 

" Will my brother remember that lam ever near him? 
1 love him with such love as angels feel who have no 
uncongenial influences to retard their progress ! 

" O, my brother — could you but feel life's harmoni- 
ous breathings as I now experience it, you would rejoice 
with joy unspeakable ! Dear brother, when troubled, 
thinh of me /" 

These communications illustrate how noble and affec- 
tionate, intelligent and holy, the inhabitants of the 
spirit-land become subsequent to their emancipation 
from earth's slavery, trials, and temptations. But it is 
not strange that spirits are so loving and wise ! Nay, 
we ourselves could be nearly as good and enlightened 
if, as in the spirit-heavens, "the Sun of Righteousness " 
had arisen in our interior firmament, — spreading light 
and freedom, love and intelligence, over the souls and 
habitations of men ! 

The following is from the spirit of a Mother in the 



188 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

spirit-land to her daughter in this world : " My daugh- 
ter, Hove to he near you! Angels will protect you 
from all harm / Mother will ever be near her dear 

euid r 

When the above was communicated, January 7th, 
1851, the lady through whom, it came, in the manner 
heretofore described, had her hand differently acted 
upon, and the father of the daughter announced his 
presence, and desired to communicate a message (the 
following), which is entirely characteristic of him as he 
was known while on this earth. Even this very sen- 
' tence he frequently used; but the medium was never 
acquainted with him, and hence did not know anything 
with regard to his manner of speaking : 

" Overcome evil with good, my child j may every 
blessing attend youP 

Thirty-two days after the above was communicated, 
the father again came from the spirit-land. He announ- 
ced his presence by his " signal," which the medium in- 
stantly recognized by the peculiar motion which he had 
before given to her hand and arm ; and the following 
was imparted by him to his daughter, word for word : 

" I am near you, my daughter, — a father's love will 
never cease in its influence over you ! Will my daugh- 
ter remember that a father's love is not diminished 
by a residence in the spirit-land f The love of angels 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 189 

far exceeds the love of earthly minds / for as the mind 
expands, we take a more comprehensive view of the 
height and depth of the beauties of Harmony. 

" Let not the trials of earth disturb the spirit of my 
dear child / let a holy influence steal over her mind as 
she contemplates the beauties of Divine Love and Di- 
vine Wisdom ! 

" The mission of my child is a mission of love. Go 
on, dear child, — the consciousness of having done 
good to the world, will greatly increase your happiness. 
Let the golden chain of love unite soul to soul / that 
all unJcindness may be overcome by its sweet influence?'' 

The following, from a grandmother in the spheres 
to her children in this world, was received through the 

same medium (Miss ) by the peculiar process of 

having her finger placed by the spirit upon the differ- 
ent letters of the alphabet, which when combined and 
punctuated, read thus : 

" My children dear : all spirits have been subjected 
to trials in the flesh / they are now free, and will do 
all in their power to alleviate those who are now in 
bondage. Spirits joyfully sustain their dear friends, 
even when they know it not, under Love's sweet and 
holy influences." 

The medium's grandmother has been for many years 
in the Second Sphere, and consequently possesses much 



190 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTEECOURSE. 

enlightenment concerning the preparation which many 
spirits have made, and are constantly making, to com- 
municate their high truths and affectionate sentiments 

to man. And one day, as Miss was asking herself 

the question — "how do spirits do this ?" — she received 
from her grandmother the following philosophical ex- 
planation : 

" You have a mind susceptible to spiritual impres- 
sions / and spirits are joyfully endeavoring to Iceep 
you in subjection. Follow spiritual direction, and you 
will progress and be happy" 

From another spirit, which frequently communicates 
with her she received the following interesting passage, 
which, like all the foregoing and succeeding imparta- 
tions, is particularly adapted to the moral reformation 
and encouragement of the reader. 

" Very enlightened spirits will teach you truths so 
that you can communicate to others. SeeJc wisdom 
to guide you. Soon shall truth triumph over error y 
and Natures laws shall be obeyed ! Universal love 
shall triumph over selfishness / and soo& truth will 
save enslaved minds from bondage." 

Those who affirm that nothing of any importance has 
as yet emanated from these spiritual manifestations, 
should calmly meditate upon the comprehensive in- 
junctions and moral admonitions which these few sen- 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 191 

tences embrace. There is truth enough in these com- 
munications to reform and purify the world. On the 
ISth of January, 1851, the medium experienced a new 
action of some unseen influence upon her hand and arm. 
Presently a male spirit, who did not give the name by 
which lie was known on earth, spelled out through her 
the following : 

" Sweet and truthful seekers after spiritual truths 

shall he spiritually enlightened. Spirits are joyfully 

seeking truthful mediums. Keep a calm and serene 

mind ever susceptible to spiritual impressions, always 

faithful to Justice, Truth, and Deity? 

Again, on the 30th day of January, 1851, and when 
the medium was not expecting any communications 
from the interior world, her arm and hand were strongly 
acted upon, and the following was imparted to her, 
word for word, as it is written. It is truly a voice from 
the spirit-land — a sweet message of encouragement to a 
pilgrim here. It comes from a very dear brother, ac- 
cording to the laws of consanguinity, who passed from 
this rndiinental existence in infancy, and who, conse- 
quently, has progressed, grown up, and received an edu- 
cation, in the midst of those immaculate beings and 
heavenly influences which distinguish the spirit-world 
from the scenes of earth. 

" Tell sister deur, I am ever near her ; and I love 



192 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

her with the love of an angel-brother. When she is 
troubled, tell her to thinh of me ! I will be with her 
in sickness and in health, and will speak to her of 
bright scenes beyond earth? 

He will " speak " to her ; he will breathe into her 
soul thoughts of the spirit-land ; death has not divided 
them, and the grave is no barrier between souls that 
are attracted one to another. Is not this a happy thing 
to be learned in a world which ignorance has hung in 
mourning for the dead ? It is lifting the crape, and 
revealing that there are no dead ! And jet it is asked, 
" What good can these things do % " Admitting that there 
are such things occurring as mysterious " rappings " and 
unaccountable manifestations, "what benefit is to be de- 
rived therefrom?" "Can there an v good thing come out 
of Nazareth?" Such is the language of the sceptic and 
of the incipient inquirer; but these are gentle words, and 
silver sounds, compared with that voice upon the earth 
which cries out against every new messenger of Truth, 
the sound of which reverberates from Calvary, repeats 
from mount to mount, echoes from age to age, responds 
from tongue to tongue, and mutters now, " Away with 
him, away with him? — " Crucify him, crucify him? 
Yes, the same voice of ignorance and sectarianism that 
spoke so loud eighteen hundred years ago, still hoarsely 
whispers its anathemas. The same spirit of intolerance 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 193 

yet lives, to revile, to judge, and to condemn. "What 
matters it that one whom sectarians have crucified has 
told them to "revile not," to " judge not," to " condemn 
not " — what matters it to them ? The spirit which once 
nailed him to the cross, to-day would pierce his hands 
and feet, and thrust the sword into his side again. Still 
the religious bigot would kill the guiltless ; would shed 
innocent blood ; would slay the " Lamb of God." Yea, 
erroneously educated and prejudiced minds would de- 
stroy him who comes to bring more light into the world. 
For more light would reveal their errors — it would show 
the rottenness of their cherished idols, and hidden things 
would thereby be made manifest. They who are thus 
in the dark shrink from more light — they would jput 
out the light, and their cry is, " Away with it, away 
with it." Accustomed to darkness, educated in it, and 
erroneously taught that God's gift, the light of reason, 
must be shrouded and entombed, the human soul gropes 
through its night of existence here — the spark of hea- 
ven within smothered lest it should illumine a differ- 
ent path than that which earth's custom and popular 
opinion sanction — lest it reveal what deified priests have 
not taught, what a canonical book does not inclose, what 
a certain theological creed does not circumscribe ; in a 
word, lest it teach that to which opinion has not set 
bounds, and that which the walls of a church cannot 



194 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL LNTEECOTTRSE. 

confine. lie who dares to look beyond these sacerdotal 
enclosures, who has the courage to be guided by the 
light of God in his own heart, away from this mytho- 
logical darkness which mankind have in the infancy of 
the race created ; he, who is thus daring, is emancipated 
from slavery — " the truth makes him free " — and hence- 
forth he walks in light, and light, more light, is burst- 
ing ever upon his liberated mind. The few are thus 
strong and are thus blessed ! but, alas, to the many — 

{ ' Opinion is an omnipotence — whose veil 
Mantles the earth with darkness, until right 
And wrong are accidents, and men grow pale 
Lest their own judgments should become too bright, 
And their free thoughts be crimes, and earth have 
too much light. " 

Lest man, made in the image of God, should grow 
too much like unto God ; should learn to '* know good 
and evil ;" and "put forth his hand, and take also of 
the tree of life, and live forever ; " lest he should be- 
come " perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect," 
Yea, lest by the light of reason, man progressively 
growing more glorious, may feel and consequently pro- 
claim himself to be "the son of God " — and feeling how 
beautifully, how harmoniously, how philosophically, how 
truthfully lie is a part of the Great Whole, the elevated 
mind cannot but exclaim, " I and my Father are one." 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 



195 



This is the light which the world now rejects. " It 
shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehend- 
eth it not." But even centuries ago, ignorance and 
sectarianism could not extinguish that light ; notwith- 
standing the temples through which it beamed were 
destroyed ; and all that man in his ignorance could do 
to prevent its development and expansion was done ; 
and notwithstanding, for many succeeding ages, the 
cross, the rack, the dungeon, the stake, and the gallows 
were employed as instruments to put out this " light 
which cometh into the world," still it burnetii brighter 
and brighter. Aud ever are found pure and indomitable 
persons ready to be crucified, to be consumed, to be 
broken on the wheel of torture, to mount any scaffold, 
there to hold up aloft, for the gathered multitudes to 
see, the LiMit which is Life and immortalitv, and which 
death cannot destroy. But not thus, to-day, do the sons 
of God perish from the earth because of the light that 
is in them — no more are the temples of the Holy Ghost 
(or divine spirit) thus desecrated, because their inward 
light shines— nay, for already from the most enlightened 
parts of the earth truth has swept away the external 
instruments of torture — those implements of darkness 
which the past cherished, until light shining on the 
world revealed their existence and exposed their hide- 
ousness. But still the elements of sectarian bigotry and 



196 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

persecution lie hidden in. many human minds, especially 
in those intolerant intellects from whence the wild cry 
goes forth — to "burn," to" hang," the unoffending "me- 
dium" of li^ht sent from above. Yes, the language 
which now falls from the lips of the professing and 
dogmatic Christian is — " hang the witches " — " burn the 
sorcerers." These misdirected minds would rejoice in 
beholding " agony, and bloody sweat," till they could, 
if possible, wring from their helpless victims (the chil- 
dren of our heavenly Father) the despairing cry, " My 
God, my God — why hast thou forsaken me?" But 
times are changed ; the world's progress will not now 
permit these sectarian feelings (which the present in- 
herits from the past, and which man lias not yet out- 
grown) to be carried into public and outward execu- 
tion. Such despotic sentiments must now remain in 
the unhappy intellect which gave them birth, and there 
torture the mind that nourishes them. They who in- 
dulge such thoughts will find but little relief in merely 
giving them lip-utterance, and hearing them echoed by 
the ignorant — or, perhaps, lisped by their little ones, 
into whose hearts they are ingrafting curses instead of 
blessings, hate instead of love, stifling the harmony of 
their natures, and stringing their souls to discord — 
such from out of the mouth will pray to God, u Thy 
kingdom come," and then do all they can to prevent the 






THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 197 

development and progress of that kingdom on the earth ; 
they will set the lamb against the lion, and the lion 
against the lamb ; they will not let them "lie down" in 
peace together. 

But we should pity the unkind individual that re- 
viles, judges, and condemns. Because within that mis- 
directed and undeveloped mind there is a dungeon and 
a scaffold ; there is darkness there — and death, for no 
man hath passed from death unto life unless he loves 
the brethren. And the victim in that prison, the exe- 
cuted there, is the reviler who reviles — the judge who 
judges — the condemner who condemns! for when the 
unhappy fanatic, the wretched victim of misdirected 
passion, would imprison, burn, hang, crucify — then, the 
prison is in his own soul, the flames consume his own 
bosom, his own life is suffocated, the nails pierce his 
own quivering nerves. These tortures go not forth 
from him to reach the pure in heart who only seek to 
see God — they come not where* he treads, guided on- 
ward by the angel of the mind, through "paths of 
pleasantness " and " ways of peace " — for, should the 
sound of revilings fall upon his ear, it would only 
awaken pity in his heart ; pity for the suffering and 
contracted soul from which it issues ; for such are to be 
pitied — they have no heaven ! But he who loves God 
most, and his "brother as himself," rejoices whilst he 



198 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

pities those who " persecute and despitef ully use " him ; 
whilst grieving that they shot themselves out of heaven, 
he rejoices that their hell is not forever. It is the good 
man's delight to know that, if not in this sphere of life, 
the ignorant and uncharitable must, in the progression 
of time, in the world to come, outgrow their errors ; and 
even'nally that they, too, will walk in light with the 
angels! — I say hi time — yes, for time is a portion of 
eternity, on this earth, and in all worlds ; in this first 
sphere of existence, and in all the succeeding spheres of 
life. 

lie, out of whose dogmatic and sectarian mind pro- 
ceeds condemnation ; he who will not seek that he may 
find ; he, though he knows it not, loses much of in- 
effable cnjo} T ment in this present era of spiritual mani- 
festations. To such, no voice, from heaven, speaks — 
such will only listen to sounds from the tombs of the 
past ; by them the pleasant tone of the present, pro- 
claiming the innumerable delights of the future, is un- 
heard ; but to the individual whose longings are after 
immortality — to him whose mind searches after the 
infinite and would penetrate the mysteries of Godliness 
— to the human spirit which lifts itself up to the divine 
— to such, the stupendous revealments of this era of the 
world disclose the blissful joys of a more universal an- 
gelic communication. 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 199 

The enlightened investigator will distinguish between 
the spiritual and the human, to the end that heaven 
may not be accused of that which originates on the 
earth ; but the ignorant and superstitious, the slave and 
victim of erroneous education, will hasten to proclaim 
all new developments to be " devilish " — " vile " — 
" blasphemous." Such a spirit in Christendom, which 
thus continues to denounce and not investigate, is none 
other than that which moved the Jews to accuse Jesus 
of " casting out devils through the prince of the devils." 
Yea, the same inquisitorial spirit is still alive ; not yet 
are its revilings hushed ; and those, out of whose mis- 
directed minds these insults come, will even now, in our 
age, as the same class did ages ago, meet an angel in 
their path, and say to him — "thou hast a devil;" but 
now, as then, "they know not what they do ; " and now, 
as then, the angel voice exclaims, "Father, forgive 
them ! " The pure and truthful spirit gently answers 
its accuser, " I have not a devil, but I honor my 
Father, and ye do dishonor me." How mild are these 
accents-! Ilere no combativeness is aroused ; for this re- 
sponse is truly from heaven, let it fall from what lips it 
may ; other language than this, God's messengers do not 
use. If, therefore, a different expression come through 
the sounds to us, or reach our minds in any other way, 
then we may be sure that human misdirection and mis- 



200 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

understanding mingle with what we hear. But when 
we see that, by these revealments, the unhappy atheist 
has been brought to a belief in God and immortality — . 
the wretched unbeliever becomes a blessed believer; 
when we behold the "broken heart bound up" — 
"the bruised reed" tenderly cared for — the bereaved 
mourner rejoicing for the " lost which is found" — the 
erring turning from their misdirected ways — -the heart, 
from which once issued bitterness, giving forth sweetness, 
and overflowing with love instead of hate ; when we 
see the once morally-deformed outgrowing their infirm- 
ities, and gradually becoming more and more like unto 
the angels — and when we also behold that " the blind 
see," the " lame walk," and u the deaf hear " — then, let 
us not say of that, by which these things come, " it is 
evil / let us not say, of those through whom these bless- 
ings flow, from God, to us, " they have Beelzebub, and 
by the prince of the devils they cast out devils " — nay, 
but rather let us acknowledge that by the spirit of 
Truth it is done, and that by it, " God's kingdom " may 
be unfolded on earth. 

Those moralists and theologians who think that all 
the startling and mysterious phenomena of this fertile 
century are alone referable to the machinations and 
caprices of evil-disposed persons in this world, whose 
volition and other mental faculties are overpowered or 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 201 

disturbed, in their natural operations, by the systematic 
interposition of invisible evil beings of superior power, 
should dispassionately consider the goodness and moral 
strength of these simple aphorisms and admonitions. 
The medium, Miss , through whom they came, sus- 
tains a character for truth and integrity above impeach- 
ment. The following emanated from a very dear 
brother, now in the spirit-land, to his brother on the 
earth. It was imparted in the manner heretofore 
described, namely, by electrical action upon the nervous 
system of the medium, from which she* derives her 
impressions. 

" Attend to spiritual direction, brother dear, under- 
% stand, — so that truth and knowledge shall he sensibly, 
sincerely, and joyfully experienced by you. Joy and 
peace will always restore tranquillity. Seek wisdom to 
guide you, and all will be well, my brother. Always do 
what is right, and you will be happy. Be cautious* — 
be wise \ — and hind. % ' Spirits will watch over you ! 
As you are susceptible to improvement, so far will 
spiritual truth be appreciated and loved by you." 

The candid reader cannot but be intellectually inter- 

* " Caution is the armor to defend us against imposition and the 
aggressions of unrighteousness." — Anon. 

f U A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth 
strength. " — Primitive History. 

\ "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted." — Ibid. 
9* 



202 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

ested and morally improved by these sweet emanations 
from the spirit-land. They are gentle and affectionate, 
clear and positive, penetrative and exalting. They 
come to us like the whisperings of an invisible Divinity 
— sacred breathings of angelic intelligence. They 
momentarily encourage ns to reconstruct the internal 
mechanism, to properly arrange the secret spr'ngs, to 
harmonize the controlling interests, of human society, to 
the end that temporal and eternal things may be so 
conjoined as to yield only joys unspeakable and moral 
rest. They feach sweet charity, and bid the mind look 
up to where — 

" High on yon scroll, inscribed o'er Nature's shrine, 
Live in bright characters the words divine : 
' In Life's disastrous scenes to others do 
What you would wish by others done to you ! " 
— Winds ! wide o'er the earth the sacred Law convey, 
Ye nations hear it ! and ye Kings obey ! " 

The following passage emanated indirectly (that is, 
by informing another spirit what to impart) from a 
high inhabitant of the superior sphere. It is addressed 
to one on the earth whose chief desire is the elevation 
of the down-trodden — the emancipation of the enslaved. 
It utters the great truth that all bondage is wronp-. 
Therefore, to those w T ho are laboring in the uncultivated 
fields of humanity, where the poisonous weeds of slav- 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 203 

ery grow, and where the deadly vipers of ignorance, 
cruelty, and misery crawl — to such minds, the follow- 
ing communication will sound like a voice from hea- 
ven : 

" Dear Brother : A love of Justice, Truth, and 
Deity, saves a world from Sorrow, Trouble, Stipersti- 
tiori, and Slavery, — and Wisdom, unfolded, shall save 
so ids. Good spirits below, are always attended with 
spiritual influences from above / and spirits of the 
second sphere are ever looking on to take a view of 
scenes surrounding the earth's inhabitants. Joyful 
truths are unfolded through a medium so true and 
pure • and scenes delightful are just beginning to be 
appreciated. Joy and peace be with you, brother dear / 
joyful spirits are ever near you ! r 

It will be perceived that the ruling love among an- 
gelic beings, is the love of Truth ! * The medium is 
particularly and frequently visited by a female spirit 
who has resided in the spirit-land about twenty years, 
and who, therefore, has become highly learned in the 

* " God is a spirit ; and they that worship him must worship hirci in 
spirit and in Truth." — Primitive History. The human embodiment 
of Love and Justice, which form the Christ-Principle, is in the 
Primitive History very impressively called " the way, the Truth, 
and the life" — a principle which, when faithfully followed, is certain 
to lead the human mind to the Deity — or, the great fountain of 
everlasting and infinite things. 



204 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

great truths which pertain to human progression and 
happiness. The following is from this spirit to a lady 
whose mind has been for considerable time agitated by 
conflicts between the impressions of her religious edu- 
cation and the dictates of her reason and conscience : 

" Caroline : — Willing minds will find that every 
desire will he readily understood by spirits. Seek 
always to be so sensitive to spiritual influences as to 
see truth y and soon spirits will manifest themselves 
to you. Keep always wisdom before your mind y seek 
truth, so as to see its heavenly beauties, and you will 
• be happy. 

" Seek to know truth for truth's sake, so that every 
spiritual manifestation, seen and sanctified, will con- 
duce to your progression y so that love will triumph 
over every other desire. 

" Spirits are seeking to have you keep spiritual har- 
mony and feel love to all mankind y so that you 
always can appreciate truth and justice — and experi- 
rience salvation from all superstition and bigotry, 
and slavery of ail kinds ! 

" Spirits are ever near you, dear friend, to protect you 
from all harm ! Love spiritual truths, and you will 
be free indeed ! Keep truth always before your mind, 
with wisdom to guide you, and you shall not want for 
any good thing / ' ? 



THE FORMATION OF CIECLES. 205 

Concerning voices from the spirit-land, timid minds 
are frequently heard to say, in substance, " Reason is 
carnal — the Bible is silent upon spiritual intercourse, 
and it is manifestly striving to be wise above what is 
written, to hearken unto and investigate these things." 

A mind of this class, Miss was one day impressed 

to visit. The following is a communication w T hereby 
the " medium " received direction to visit a lady in 
Hartford, from a spirit (that lady's sister) in the Sum- 
merland. It was received February 3d, 1851 ; and I 
think the reader will be edified by appropriating it to 
himself. 

" E , call at A 7 s to-day ; hut be cautious 

what you say to her. She is not prepared for all — 
she must know these things hy degrees. Milk for 
babes, and meat for those who are able to digest it. 
There are many who think they are strong, hut who 

are very weak. JE , do good to-day, as you are 

able. Think of the spirits — they are ever near you, 
—fear not, nor be discouraged." 

The sorrow-stricken, the unjustly afflicted, the 
troubled and disconsolate, should breathe in the follow- 
ing communication addressed to the " medium," for 

Mrs. , from her grandfather, who has been some 

forty years in the spirit-land. It was imparted Febru- 
ary, 4th, 1851. 



206 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

" Tell dear C L am ever near her — that I have 

watched over her from infancy / have protected her 
many times, though she knew it not. Tell her there 
are many truths she has yet to learn — beautiful truths, 
far surpassing human conception ! They spring from 
a never-failing fountain, and whoever will, may drink 
and thirst not. Happy indeed are they whom the 
Truth makes free ! Tell her to do good and be happy, 
and to let not the" cares of earth prevent progression." 

To the " medium," from a beautifully intelligent 
spirit, formerly a physician in II : 

" E , will you attend to a monitor who speaks to 

you in accents of Love f Be ever ready to do good to 
all / let your mind be ever awake to receive impres- 
sions, aiul spirits will speak to you in Love and Wis- 
dom. They are ever ready to instruct the willing 
mind, and to teach All how to be happy and progress. 
Every truthful mind loves truth wherever it is 
found? * 

The reader is now supplied with accurate representa- 
tions of those emanations of truth and affection which 
are ever certain to proceed from the inhabitants of the 
second sphere of existence, whenever they find mediums 

* The commandments of Truth are high and imperious ; and her 
true disciples never hesitate to follow wheresoever she leads. Any 
theory, hypothesis, philosophy, sect, creed, or institution that fears 
investigation, openly manifests its own error. 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 207 

that are good and truthful. Miss was one day re- 
flecting upon the ignorance and scepticism among men, 
also concerning the final triumph of truth, and in a few 
minutes she received the following communication 
from her aunt, who is one of her particular guardian 
spirits : 

"JE , you need not worry about the future — be 

quiet, be gentle, be truth-loving, and sjjirits will protect 
you. Love the Truth, and the Truth will maJce you free, 
— -free from all error— free from shame— free from all 
oppression! Be not too anxious, for Truth is all- 
conquering in its influence i it will conquer pride, and 
ambition, and all evil affections. 

" 0, how lovely is Love ! 0, how truthful is Truth ! 
E , drink deep from the fountain of Truth ! " 

It is a thing greatly to be desired that the harmonial 
circles develop truthful and impressible mediums. If 
those meetings are conducted with a proper dignity, it 
is almost certain that phenomena, similar to the fore- 
going, will be the result. To this end, and also for 
mutual improvement and mental harmonization, should 
they congregate who unite to form circles according to 
the directions above specified. Let these re-unions be 
particularly sought by those who would learn of the 
fact of immortality. This is, I repeat, the great lesson 
the angels come now to teach. Let those who have 



20S PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL IXTEKCOrRSE. 

hitherto looked upon death as a dark abyss — as the ter- 
mination of personal identification — come and behold 
the beautiful light which now illumines those, once to 
the human mind, impenetrable depths. Let them come 
who love life, and let them no more grieve when the 
years of earth fly past them ; let them no more be sad- 
dened when they are gone ; let them not cling to those 
years, as the drowning mariner grasps at a board, be- 
cause they are life to us, and life is to be cherished. 
Let them not fear to loose that grasp, lest, as the planks 
escape them, they sink into an ocean whose depths are 
unknown, the mysteries of whose unfathomable dark- 
ness are unrevealed, and where all their capabilities of 
loving and being happy, may, for aught they know, be 
everlastingly buried. O, let them who ride upon this 
sea of terrors, let them come now and behold that the 
seemingly dark waters are but overshadowed by the 
clouds of ignorance, and those dispersed — the bright 
sun of heaven shines upon that ocean, revealing its 
depths, and the soul can look far, far into eternity, and 
behold that — there is no death ! The convinced soul 
no longer seeks to grasp the planks that float by. Xo ! 
"Welcome, thrice welcome those depths — there is light 
there, and years, eternal years, are but the moments of 
Eternity. By this increasing light the human mind 
gazes deeper and deeper into the forever extending 



THE FORMATION OF CIRCLES. 209 

future — into the innumerable abysses of the universe, 
and sees everywhere the glowing gems of truth ; nor 
do the boundless riches which it contemplates cause it 
to reject one, even the least, of those which it once 
gathered from off the surface of the darkened waters. 
Nay, for they too were jewels which rose from out of 
that ocean's depths — and they are imperishable ! Noth- 
ing of all God's treasures can be lost ! Therefore, fear 
not that a single truth shall ever be cast away, or that 
aught which is the Father's can ever be destroyed. In 
the impressive language of David, the Bible bard, I 
would say unto the reader — " from everlasting to ever- 
lasting thou art " a child of God. 



!THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 



Under this head I will first proceed to consider how 
the spirits visit us. The question is, in what way do the 
departed come among us, even to stand in our midst at 
the circles ? There are two methods by which they ac- 
complish this. First, by their placing themselves into 
electrical relations with the members of the circle from 
a distance ; second, by their actual entrance into the 
room where the circle is in session. But they come in 
at the open door. They cannot pass through walls, or 
hard, solid substances, any more than we can ; for they 
are organized as we are, and must necessarily submit to 
the principles of nature which govern matter and mind 
in all the vast realms of universal being. And here I 
am impressed to be clearly explicit, upon this point, in 
speaking to those who have erroneously entertained the 
supposition that spirits can go instantly anywhere and 
through anything, " like thought," as they express it. 
This mistaken idea grows out of the wrong impression, 
which I have already alluded to, that spirit is immate- 
rial. Neither is Thought the voyager it is imputed to 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 211 

be by those who do not metaphysically and deliberately 
examine, and study, as far as mind can investigate itself, 
the wonders and workings of their own interior prin- 
ciple. The discriminating metaphysician knows, that, 
because we can think of things, situated a world wide 
apart in a moment of time, it does not follow, as a con- 
sequence, that our thoughts travel over that intervening 
space. It is true, we can think of a vast number of 
localities separated by millions of miles, and can permit 
our thoughts (so to speak) to fly from one side of the 
universe to the other in the brief period of thirty sec- 
onds. But it is not proper here to nse the word fly in 
the sense which expresses the flight- of the bird over 
space, or the travelling of the quick lightning which 
penetrates the intervening distances. The bird and the 
lightning fly, but we simply think concerning those 
localities, a knowledge of the existence of which has 
been, in some manner, impressed upon our memory. 
Our thoughts, therefore, only traverse, in fact, the vari- 
ous storehouses of our memory, contemplating the va- 
rious possessions there, and passing rapidly from one 
point to another in that demesne. They go not thence 
into the outer world to traverse space, but are confined 
to the interior departments of the mind, where are dis- 
tinctly written or daguerreotyped the different localities 
and the particular events which we have experienced, 



212 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

read in books, or heard tell of with interest. Now it is 
upon the false supposition that Thought travels from 
place to place, and through all intervening substances, 
that the mind, reasoning thence analogically, comes to 
the untenable conclusion that Spirits travel upon iden- 
tical principles. But since the basis of this analogy is 
erroneous, the conclusions derived therefrom must be 
erroneous also ; hence we should seek other methods of 
ascertaining the truth on this very important and highly 
metaphysical subject. 

We should turn to the principles of nature for in- 
struction ; they teach us that a spirit cannot pass 
through walls, because it is, itself, an organization of 
substantial elements. Many individuals think that a 
spirit (supposing it to be but a disembodied essence) 
can penetrate and pass through hard substances, as the 
sun sends down to earth its rays of light through win- 
dows into a room, or as atmospheric electricity darts 
from mount to mount through space. But these pro- 
cesses will not subserve the purpose of a basis upon 
which to analogically infer that so it is with spirit. The 
case is widely different. Spirit is not a m,ere element, 
like light or electricity ; but it is a combination of ele- 
ments and principles, beautifully and organically con- 
structed. If a spirit should be forced through a wall, 
the consequence in such a case (which case I am im- 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 213 

pressed could never occur) would be a disorganization 
of the elements which compose that spirit, but these ele- 
ments would immediately reorganize, just as a body of 
water separates in passing through a net, but unites 
again on the opposite side. Where the interstices in a 
solid substance are not sufficiently large to admit the 
refined and elastic organism of the spirit, there it can- 
not pass without experiencing the physical consequences 
of disorganization. Hence those laws which govern 
man's physical being and movements in this sphere of 
existence, are equally applicable to the organism and 
movements of spirits in spheres superior. It is not an 
easy thing for the human mind to comprehend the 
spiritual organization ; but there are very numerous ex- 
ternal and sensuous evidences of its substantiality and 
materiality. As one illustration of this proposition, I 
refer the reader to the following extract from the Med- 
ical Journal, which says : " It has been observed, that 
persons who have lost a limb, or a part of one, are at 
times very much troubled with an intolerable itckhig, 
or sometimes pain, in the fingers or toes of the extremity 
which is lost. A case of this kind lately presented itself 
to us for advice, which, being a little out of the common 
course, we have thought proper to give to our readers. 
A young man had his hand amputated just above the 
wrist, on account of having it shattered by the bursting 



214 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

of a gun. This happened some two years since, and the 
deficiency is supplied by a wooden hand. At times, he 
tells ns that he has the most intolerable itching between 
these wooden fingers, in fact insupportable, and, to use 
his own words, he would give a hundred dollars for the 
chance to give them a scratching. At other times, he 
has much pain where the fingers should be, and he can 
only obtain relief by altering their position. When 
free from the pain or itching, lie can discover no differ- 
ence between that hand and the sound one. He can 
will the fingers of the lost hand to act, and they seem to 
obey. At times, the ends of the fingers are quite numb 
and cold ; being partly flexed, he feels that he has not the 
power to extend them. There are other phenomena con- 
nected with this case, which, with those we have given, 
would be very difficult to account for on phj'siological 
principles." Here it is seen that the elements of the 
spiritual organism are not destroyed by accidents, but con- 
tinue in their proper places and conditions. In the fore- 
going case, the individual feels the elements of his spirit- 
ual hand jwrmeating the wooden fingers, and quite as 
distinctly too as when those elements were clothed with 
the natural hand. It is well to remember that the 
spiritual form does not organize until all the elements 
have emanated from the natural body. These invisible 
principles cannot be destroyed by accidents or otherwise, 



THE EESUERECTION OF THE DEAD. 215 

because they are essentially living, and are distinctly 
visible to the spiritual senses — to the eyes of the im- 
mortal mind; but they do not, as before said, take upon 
themselves their indestructible body — do not organize 
into the spiritual form — until they all escape the con- 
fines of the earthly temple. 

The inquirer now naturally asks: " If spirits cannot (at 
will) pass through walls, rocks, and other solid sub- 
stances, how can one extricate itself from the depths of 
an avalanche where it has been buried — how shall it 
escape from that mountain of earth and stones ? " To 
this question I am impressed to answer, that when a 
human being is overwhelmed by such a catastrophe — is 
thus fearfully buried, thus crushed to death, as it is 
termed — the spirit escapes the body and the mass of 
materials by passing, in the form of elements, according 
to the law of gravitation, to a position above the earth, 
where the reorganization of those elements can, without 
obstruction, easily take place. This organism is the 
filial formation, the spiritual body which is incorrupti- 
ble. The spirit, considered as a structure, could not 
pass from its position under the earth to a superior 
position above the earth; but, whilst a suspension of 
consciousness accompanies the process and phenomena 
of a dissolution of the ties existing between the soul and 
the body, the elements of the former (the soul) ascend 



216 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

through the mass of earth and rock, and ultimate them- 
selves in the spiritual and final organization, which is 
both. indestructible and eternally progressive. In order 
to furnish an illustration of the principle upon which 
the human spirit makes its escape from beneath the 
avalanche or from any similar obstacle, and thus ac- 
complishes its own emancipation, I will here relate an 
interesting instance which occurred a few years since. 

One morning, as I was walking through a suburban 
portion of the beautiful village of Foughkeepsie^ I ob- 
served a number of men at a little distance engaged, as 
I supposed, in digging a well. A field separated me 
from them, and I baited, unconscious of any particular 
motive for so doing, and leaning against the fence, 
watched the men as they worked the windlass in raising 
water and mud from the excavation, which was already 
very deep. Immediately, I noticed that the workmen 
were suddenly thrown into great commotion as by some 
unexpected accident. On seeing their rapid and anxious 
movements, I hurried across the field, and ascertained 
the cause of their distress. A poor Irish laborer was 
buried beneath the stones and clay, which had that mo- 
ment caved into the well ! This intelligence intensified 
my sympathies to a high degree. The condition of the 
unfortunate man was, to the natural senses, too horrible 
to contemplate ; and this excitement, combined with 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 217 

the desire to ascertain the sufferer's position, constituted 
a powerful magnetizer to whose influence I readily 
yielded, and passed directly into the superior condition. 
And, as solid substances cannot retard the penetration 
of the spiritual perceptions (see "Great llarmonia," 
vol. i. p. 381), I directed them upon the man in the 
well. lie was beyond all pain and distress. The heavy 
load of material had crushed his natural body, and he 
was dead ! This event took place several months pre- 
vious to my general investigations into the principles of 
Kature ; and hence this question, at that time, arose in 
my mind, " How can the human spirit escape from such 
a condition ? " With novel sensations I watched the pro- 
cess before me. First, I observed, with regard to the 
buried man, an entire suspension of his consciousness — 
a fusion, so to speak, of all the elements and ethereal 
constituents of his spiritual constitution — like many sub- 
stances melted into one bright fluid, having neither form 
nor sensibility. The brain of the dead man was surcharged 
with this brilliant liquid, which seemed also partially to 
permeate the lower extremities. Immediately, however, 
this glowing, luminous, most refined kind of fluidity 
began ascending, from the brain, through the solid sub- 
stances above it, still passing upward between the work- 
men (who were laboring to extricate their companion) 

into the atmosphere some six feet above the heads of the 
10 



218 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

men. Here the spiritual elements ceased to ascend. 
And I now directed my observations to this point, where 
a space of about three feet in diameter became rapidly 
more and more brilliant. And this spot of dazzling 
light seemed to pulsate with an indwelling animation. 
It appeared like a great heart, composed of thinking 
elements. A soft, mellow halo continued to accumulate 
around it, still emanating from the body in the well ; and 
thus this seeming heart was provided with a kind of 
ethereal pericardium, or covering, which was very beau- 
tiful and physiological. Now this sublime process was 
going on w T hile the workmen were putting forth every 
possible exertion to rescue their fellow-laborer from his 
awful position. They were not aware of the (to them) 
invisible operations of those very elements of animation 
and intelligence, which only forty minutes before had 
made the now buried man a thinking, working being in 
their midst. That same essence was now ascending be- 
tween them and above them, and they knew it not. 
But I saw it all ! Had they rescued that being, ere it 
had escaped the natural body, how different would have 
been its resurrection ! They could not behold this glo- 
rious ascension. But while they lovingly and anxiously 
continued their exertions to save him, I still watched 
with calm delight that palpitating, living combination 
of elements in the air ; and very soon I discovered, in 



THE EESUKRECTION OF THE DEAD. 219 

the centre of the pulsating mass, so redolent with life, as 
it was, the distinct outlines of a symmetrically construc- 
ted head. A beautiful progression was visible through- 
out the whole phenomenon. Particle sought particle, 
atom sought atom, element sought element, principle 
sought principle," in accordance with the principles of 
Association, progression, and development; and the whole 
process of organization went on with that silent order 
and undeviating precision which characterize the growth 
of trees and the development of flowers ! In due order 
of progression I saw developed (as I have already de- 
scribed in another instance ; see " Great Ilarmonia," vol. 

* Let those to whom this beautiful process appears incredible, 
because they cannot, with the natural eyes, behold it — let them 
consider how the natural body is formed — how, in the mother's 
womb, atom seeks atom, particle seeks particle, and principle seeks 
principle, associating themselves by the laws of assimilation and de- 
velopment, and forming' the spirit's first habitation, the infant temple 
of the soul ; and then consider how, in like manner, the finer elements 
of a more glorious body, the etherealized materials of a holier temple, 
may assemble themselves together and unite in a purer and more 
beautiful form. 

The grosser particles of the natural body are months in uniting, 
while the refined atoms of the spiritual body organize in as many 
hours, or in even a less time. But not more wonderful is the birth 
of the heavenly body, than is the birth of the earthly body — though 
so infinitely more sublime is that of the spiritual than that of the 
natural — I would that all might once behold this second birth, so that 
all might live in joyful anticipation of the change. I would have no 
mind fear death, but rather unrighteousness ; for no one is exempt 
from the painful consequences of wrong actions which violate the 
operations of Nature's Laws. 



220 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

i. p. 170) the perfect development of the head, body, 
limbs, etc., of the new and indestructible organization 
into which the spiritual elements of that laborer ultima- 
ted themselves ; and I beheld a form finely wrought— 
a body beautifully, organically, and symmetrically con- 
structed — adapted to that glorious land where divine 
love and wisdom environ the soul forever. 

The whole process of this interesting phenomenon oc- 
cupied about three hours. At the end of that time the 
spirit was completely liberated from the " dominion 
/>f the flesh," by a sudden separation of that thread of 
vital electricity which I have elsewhere compared to the 
umbilical cord of the natural birth, which gradually 
more attenuated thread of glittering light, reaching from 
the body in the depths of the well, until that moment 
connected the material and the ultimate organisms to- 
gether. This thread parted, and the spirit w T as born ! 
His consciousness was now restored — but what an eman- 
cipation ! The toiling slave was free ! The world- 
neglected, the down-trodden workman — the poor, de- 
spised, but honest Irishman — now, from where he stood, 
a glorified form, looked down and beheld his former 
companions still laboring to rescue what, by this time, 
they felt could be only a dead body. His spiritual 
perceptions, gazing still deeper, readily pierced to where 
lay the crushed remains. But the torn and bleeding 



TKE KESUEEECTION OF THE DEAD. 221 

body, and the old suit of tattered clothes, were alike ob- 
jects of indifference to him. He had put off both, never 
again to resume them ! lie could speak no farewell 
word to his friends throusjli their dull sense of material 
hearing, and he readily perceived and comprehended 
that he was inmsible to their gross natural sight ; so, 
turning from them with an interior and calm joy, he 
submitted liimself to the attractions which were sent 
down to him from the Summerland, and immediately 
passed on, away from the earth ! * 

* Necrologically considared, the ascension or resurrection of man's 
immortal soul from the earth, into the immeasurable second sphere 
of spiritual existence — a sphere which is a vast degree superior to 
the present life in refinement, in beauty, in harmony, and perfection 
— is a natural, beautiful, and wonderful phenomenon. Inasmuch as 
the human spiritual organization is naturally and inevitably immor- 
tal, and inasmuch as it is a combination, like the corporeal or present 
body, of substantial elements and principles, it is therefore very philo- 
sophical and logically legitimate to conclude that the spirit of man 
mist bs acted upon, to a certain extant, by the laws which control 
solids acd fluids — by the principles of Nature. The law of gravitation 
or association has a slight yet perceptible action upon the ascending 
spirit, just as steam is, by this law, made or compelled to gravitate 
above the earth into the atmosphere. James Victor Wilson designed 
to be understood thus when he said, in describing his passage from 
earth, " We passed from the earth-sphere through the opening at one 
of the poles." Owing to the centrifvgdl movement or tendency of 
our earth, which imparts to both icater and atmosphere an impetus 
to fly from the centre to the extreme periphery of the orbit in which 
it (the earth) revolves, the height aiid density of the air must neces- 
sarily be greater in the direction of its diurnal and annual revolutions 
than at the poles. In other words, the atmosphere, for the above 



222 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

The exceeding beauty of this transfiguration evi- 
denced the soul of a good man — one, in whom the 
moral virtues had grown almost up to the stature of a 
pure spirit. Truth, Justice, Love, Purity of heart and 
action, such are the imperishable adornments of the im- 
mortal being. Bat in this life, these rich possessions 
are too often shrouded by poverty ; the world sees them 
not beneath the torn garb of the laborer, whom circum- 
stances chain, as it were, to the oar — his existence 
being one continual pull against the tide of adversity. 
lu. the present structure of society, no time is given him 
for outward display wherewith to dazzle the world, nor 
for the proper rest of his body and cultivation of his 
mind ; but there is an inward accumulation of patience, 
of gentleness, of love, which, though silent and hidden, 
is ever brightening more and more for future glory ! I 
beheld this transformation, and I was happy. On this 
impressive occasion, I learned that, should the material 
body be dissolved with disease, or crushed by any cat- 
astrophe or accident whatever, the individuality of the 

obvious reasons, is very much more rare, penetrable, or pervious to 
light bodies, at the sides or poles of the earth, than it is in the direc- 
tion of its motions. And spirits frequently, though not invariably, 
glide into the great current of magnetism tending southward (see 
" Great Harmonia," p. 92), and are conducted, with inexpressible ease 
and pleasure, upon its flowing surface through the "opening," or 
thin, penetrable atmosphere, at " one of the poles." This is in ac- 
cordance with the principles of physical gravitation. 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 223 

spirit is not deformed, nor in the least degree obscured. 
Because the various elements which compose the spirit- 
ual organization, can easily and readily penetrate and 
ascend through all, even adamantine, substances to a 
position above every conceivable material obstruction, 
where, unmolested and unimpeded, the soul naturally 
and spontaneously takes upon itself its final and incor- 
ruptible form — a form, at first, more or less beautiful, 
brighter or darker, according to the individual's devel- 
opment and growth in goodness previous to his depart- 
ure from the earth. And though the form then assumed 
is indestructible, and shall change no more forever, it 
may nevertheless, and will, become brighter, lovelier, 
more glorious, more inconceivably sublime, in propor- 
tion to its advancement in love, its progression in wis- 
dom, its ascension from sphere to sphere ! 

Continuing to contemplate the subject of a spirit's 
escape from the natural body, I will now proceed to 
answer a query frequently addressed to me. "Sup- 
pose," says the inquirer, u a living man should be put 
into an air-tight box which shall be hermetically sealed, 
and that box be placed within a glass case as tightly 
closed. How, under these circumstances, could the 
spirit of that man escape ? " Before replying to this 
question, I am impressed to conduct the reader's 
thoughts to the observation of a class of interesting 



224 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

effects and phenomena in external nature. It is a 
familiar fact that a magnet will influence the mariner's 
compass through any substance whatever. Let the 
compass be placed in a glass case hermetically sealed, 
or in any confined box into which neither air nor light 
can enter, and yet the magnet will, when moved on the 
external of the case, turn the needle in any direction. 
This natural fact seems like enchantment, for we can 
see the effect but not the cause. It is also well known 
to miners that in the region of a rich iron mine, the 
magnetic needle will attract, through the most confined 
glass case, a great many atoms of iron, resembling (color 
excepted) the fine frost which coats the tendrils of 
plants in winter. In these facts we have a foundation 
upon which to rest a beautiful analogy. It is magnet- 
ism and electricity which pass from the magnet through 
the intervening substances, and produce the effects upon 
the needle, which we behold. And so the elements of 
the spirit, which are far more attenuated and refined 
than electricity or magnetism, can readily pass through 
and above any hermetically sealed box, and ultimate 
themselves into a firm and unchangeable organization — 
the spiritual body — and thus leave the earthly form 
destitute of life and animation. Kay, you cannot con- 
fine the spirit of man ! It will rise triumphantly supe- 
rior to all earthly barriers and imperfections, and will 



THE EESUREECTION OF THE DEAD. 225 

manifest its powers of vigor, of expansion and sublimity, 
throughout all spheres. Let death come to the slave, 
and he bursts his chains! It releases the prisoner; it 
sets free the condemned, for the soul knows no des- 
troyer ! 

This question — " How can the spirit of a man escape 
its earthly confinement ? " — is one of much weight to the 
student of Nature. But to the mind of him who has 
never examined into the foundation of his faith con- 
cerning the nature of spirit and the principles of im- 
mortality, this query may seem irreligious and unne- 
cessary. Such a person has set bounds to his knowledge. 
Therefore, I speak now in reply to the bold investi- 
gator, to the manly seeker after wisdom, to the immor- 
tal soul whose deep searchings would penetrate the 
mysteries of godliness, to the end that his spirit may 
draw nigher unto the Father, and drink in the inspira- 
tions of his unutterable greatness. 

I have been frequently questioned as to the supposed 
dead being buried alive, and have been asked, " In what 
way the spirit in a vault escaping from its natural 
body and organizing therein, would pass out of that 
dark prison-house ? " And again, " How, if put under 
ground, the spirit would escape the precincts of the 
grave ? " To this last inquiry I have replied in de- 
scribing the emancipation of the man from the well. 
10* 



226 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

Generally speaking, the spiritual elements escape alike 
the grave and the vaulted tomb, or the dungeon (when 
one dies imprisoned), previous to organizing. But 
should the living particles unite and form within the 
earthly body's burial-place, it is because there are 
means of escape at hand. I will relate an incident in 
illustration of this fact: 

By the guiding k influence and promptings of some 
guardian spirit, I was once impressed to visit a particu- 
lar cemetery in the State of New York, and to watch 
there one of Nature's interesting processes. That I 
was then, and often, thus favored, I have learned, was 
not for my own individual benefit alone ; but it was 
also for the future happiness of the many, that my 
impressible and susceptible state was taken advantage 
of, as it were, by messengers from higher spheres, 
whereby to teach me, and others who sought to know 
of these things, and w T hose present material organisms 
did not admit of their immediately receiving a more 
direct instruction. From this digression I proceed to 
represent the lesson which, so to express myself, I joy- 
fully learned from the " mouth of the sepulchre," 
which never speaks to me of gloom ; for the cemetery 
is to me one of earth's brightest places, and every grave 
is a vestibule of the spirit-land. Not knowing why, at 
that time, I was particularly attracted to this my favorite 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 227 

resort and place of meditation, I resolved to continue 
in mind perfectly passive ; and allowed myself to be 
conducted, by the unseen but controlling influence, to 
the vicinity of a large vault, in which the supposed 
dead body of a young man had been deposited only the 
day before. 

It was a beautiful September afternoon, and, I think, 
about four o'clock in the day. A sacred stillness and 
serene tranquillity pervaded this hallowed spot of 
heavenly portals, and everything seemingly conspired 
to add external charms to the spiritual scene which I 
was led there to contemplate. Immediately on my 
arrival at the tomb I experienced the sweet, familiar, 
and benign magnetic influence of my guardian spirit,* 
steal over my nervous system ; and in a few seconds I 
passed thoroughly into the Superior Condition. My 
spiritual senses being now opened and directed w T ithin 
the vault, I perceived there the living spirit among the 
dead bodies. It was not a mere corpse which had been 
the day before conveyed to the tomb ; but it was a body 
from which the spirit had not yet departed. The 
spirit had, subsequently to the interment of the body, 
escaped the material temple by penetrating the boards 
which coniined it ; but the spirit had organized within 

* See a small work "by the author, entitled, ' ' The Philosophy of 
Special Providence," p. 19 et seq. 



228 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

the somewhat spacious vault. Yes, there, within that 
tomb, beside the coffin wherein lay the grosser form he 
had worn only twenty-four hours previous, — there I 
beheld the liberated spirit, calmly standing in all the 
majesty of immortal beauty. I was made to perceive 
that he was but just prepared to quit the earth-sphere ; 
and it was that I might witness this interesting depart- 
ure that my guiding spirit had brought me thither. I 
was now to be shown the illustration of a principle 
which runs deep in pneumatological science. 

It was very natural, under the circumstances, for my 
•mind to spontaneously inquire, " How now will that 
glorious being escape from his material confinement ? " 
This question was involuntary, because I had previously 
learned that the spiritual form could not pass through 
solid walls and iron doors ; and, therefore, the fact that 
the spirit before me was indestructibly organized within 
the tomb was, I concluded, a sufficient inferential 
evidence that some other method of escape would be 
soon adopted. He stood, for a few moments, upright 
and unmoved by any disquietude. Presently the newly 
awakened intellect began to examine the surrounding 
conditions, and to realize its new existence. There was 
nothing of death in this scene ; it was all life and in- 
telligence ! As soon as the spirit realized the " new 
birth " which he had but just experienced, and when he 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 229 

had ascertained something of the higher sympathies 
and attractive destinies which were waiting for him in 
the spirit-land, then he calmly and affectionately exer- 
cised his penetrative vision npon the earthly scenes and 
friends he had so recently left. No walls conld ob- 
struct the passage of his vision ; and I, being at the time 
in a similar condition (for the '''spiritual state" is a 
partial emancipation from the body), could follow his 
perceptions, and at the same time could maintain a 
conscious sympathy with the thoughts and emotions of 
his mind. He had been in this life a clergyman of the 
Baptist denomination. I followed his sympathies to 
the homes of those he loved ; and it gave me great joy 
to behold that, although he left many ardent friends 
and sweet associations on the earth, there was nothing 
to sadden his departure hence. There were loftier 
attractions descending into the deepest recesses of his 
nature from on high. lie was drawn towards the 
spirit-land as the magnet attracts the needle, a principle 
of spiritual gravitation actuated his newly awakened 
being, and he soon realized that his true position was 
only to be found in the tranquil realms of a greater and 
a higher world. But he, as a personality, was still 
within the tomb ! 

'Withdrawing now his perceptions from the habita- 
tions of his earthly friends, and obeying an impression 



230 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

received from a guardian spirit near the cemetery, he 
at once placed his vision upon the sexton who was the 
individual last at the tomb on the previous day. The 
object of this I did not comprehend, until I, also, 
saw that the sexton was exceedingly anxious to find an 
implement (it was a shovel, I believe), which he had 
mislaid and very much required that afternoon. It 
seemed he had already spent much time in looking for 
the missing article} but, just as he was about to give 
up further search at that time, the spirit, in the tomb, 
sent an impression which darted like the lightning 
through all intervening substances, and, with a soft 
breathing like the evening zephyr, it passed over the 
sexton's, moral faculties and quickened his memory. 
And I distinctly saw his thought; it read, " Why, I 
really believe that I left my shovel in the Rev. Mr. 

's vault, which I fastened up last evening — Vll 

go and see this minute" In pursuance of this impres- 
sion, he proceeded immediately to the place, opened 
the vault, and as he entered it, the lovely and high- 
destined spirit glided forth, through the unclosed door, 
into the soft, still atmosphere which then pervaded the 
cemetery. lie was now free from all material bar- 
riers ; his thoughts and desires yielded an angelic pas- 
siveness and spontaneous obedience to the superior 
attractions which emanated from celestial realms ; and 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 231 

his spirit — that indestructible organization of perfected 
elements which, thus united, rendered him a harmo- 
nious and immortal being — passed away to that mag- 
nificent sphere which lies embosomed in the depths of 
immensity ! 

Oh, what an instructive and divinely impressive 
scene ! And that message — so beautifully conveyed, 
so softly winged into that sexton's mind, not a thought 
milled thereby — how perfectly it illustrated to my 
understanding the power of one mind to act upon and 
influence another mind! How sweetly it revealed to 
me the truth that the freed spirit can approach earth's 
weary traveller — can find out the grief-stricken and 
exhausted pilgrim in this rudimental state of human 

existence, and drop a thought in his heart, which will 

« 
revive and refresh his fainting soul ; or else send down, 

even from some high heaven, an impression so divine, 
lovely, and energizing, as to illumine his future with 
a grand and undying joy ! 

The sexton doubtless believed that the thought of 
visiting the vault, in order to find his shovel, originated 
in his own mind ; but I saw that thought deposited, or 
rather evolved, by the magnetic influence which was 
sent into his memory by the spirit. This is an im- 
pressive exemplification of the principles of psycho- 



232 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

logical science, with which science many minds are 
already acquainted. 

As soon as the liberated spirit had, together with his 
congenial companions, the beautiful immortals (four in 
number, who were calmly waiting for him over the 
vault), glided far, far away toward the second sphere, 
I inquired of my invisible guide and magnetizer, 
"How could that spirit have escaped from its confine- 
ment if the sexton had not been thus susceptible to 
impression, or in case he had not left his shovel at the 
tomb ? " To this question he replied : " That, then, 
some one of the many relatives of the deceased could 
and would have been magnetically influenced to come 
to the vault that afternoon, with the intention to visit 
the dead, when the door would have been thus opened 
for the egress and final emancipation of the spirit." 
My guide further instructed me in substance as fol- 
lows : in case neither sexton nor relatives could have 
been thus magnetically influenced to open the vault, 
then the four guardian angels, attending his (the 
young man's) spiritual emergement, would have fore- 
seen the circumstances, and so acted upon the external 
atmosphere above the tomb as to have caused the spirit 
to organize itself in space. 

The spiritual influence which pervaded my nervous 
system — and which had conducted me into the superior 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 233 

condition, in which the spiritual senses are opened — was 
now naturally withdrawn, and, in a few moments, I 
was again in the outer world, restored to my ordinary 
state. The impression of what I had seen was indel- 
ibly impressed upon my mind, to be afterward recalled 
with all its original vividness ; and my understanding 
of magnetic and psychological principles was much 
educated and enlarged by observation of the phe- 
nomena which attended the departure of that spirit 
from earth. 

By the above-related circumstance, the questions con- 
cerning the passage of the spirit-form through hard 
substances are satisfactorily answered ; the conclusions 
being : 

First, that when individuals are buried in the 
ground, alive) then the elements which compose the 
spiritual organism do, after death in the grave, ema- 
nate through the intermediate or intervening sub- 
stances, and organize the incorruptible, the unchange- 
able, the immortal body in the external atmosphere. 

Secondly, that when a person dies within a room* 
within a dungeon, or a vault, and when the spiritual 
organization is "constructed and elaborated therein, 
then the new-born being himself, or it may be the guar- 

* The above explains the passage found in "Great Harmonia," 
vol. i. p. 172. 



234 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

dian-angel of that newly-awakened spirit {who is in 
attendance to guide him to his home above) will influ- 
ence some highly impressible and very accessible indi- 
vidual, in the natural body, to open the door ; thus 
rendering that person unconsciously instrumental in 
assisting the spirit to liberty. 

I would particularly call the attention of my readers 
to the fact that persons are often buried alive ; the 
dead are apt to be too soon harried out of sight ; the 
apparently deserted temple should be watched with 
care; for the living spirit may but have absented itself 
for a time. If the umbilical cord * of vital electricity 
be not severed, the soul may yet return to the natural 
body; because, in such an instance, all the living ele- 
ments have not yet emanated therefrom, and the seem- 
ing dead are but in a state of catalepsy, which state may 
continue for many days. Such a transitional or transic 
condition may be considered as a threatened premature 
birth ; but the spirit is only truly born out of the natu- 
ral body into the spiritual body, when all the elements 
of the living principle are released. Then the soul no 
more 'returns to its earthly tenement; but completes its 
final emancipation from the corporeal organism by a 
powerful exercise of the will-power, which energetic 
act of volition severs the cord, and the liberated spirit 

* See " Harmouia," vol. i. p. 196. 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 235 

glides away. It sometimes occurs that this powerful 
effort on the part of the spirit to achieve its freedom 
from the corruptions of the flesh — this latest struggle 
into the new birth — is manifested in the material body, 
which is, by those strong efforts, made to move and to 
indicate apparently painful muscular action, even after 
it has been supposed that the last motion was over. 

In continued pursuance of the investigation as to 
how spirits, passed into the higher life, revisit us here; 
and in further illustration of the method whereby they 
enter rooms, also to elucidate the fact that liarmonial 
circles are, and will be, attended by delegates from the 
higher spheres ; I will here introduce another instance 
from my memorabilia. 

Some three years since, as I was about recovering 
from a severe illness, an impression came to me, clothed 
with all the positiveness which naturally emanates from 
the sphere of a mind conscious of the possession of 
knowledge and truth, that I must write upon the great 
problem of social evil, its cure, and how industry may 
be made attractive and remunerative to the toiling mil- 
lions which people this globe. It was, however, a ques- 
tion }*et unsettled, whether my communication should be 
more particularly addressed to the people themselves, or 
to the shepherds of the people, the clergy. Ilad this 
matter been determined by the impression, which I re- 



236 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

ceived, that I should write upon the subject, I should 
have had no after query about it; but, as it was not 
thus decided for me, I could not resist the spontaneous 
and involuntary effort of my mind to decide the ques- 
tion for itself ; and this thought was the burden of my 
deliberations, when I was made sweetly conscious of the 
princely presence of the lofty spirit of Solon, the Athe- 
nian Lawgiver, in my room. lie was accompanied 
thither by the, also, highly exalted spirit of Pisisteates, 
his present friend and associate in the better life, though 
once, in this world, his strongest enemy. 

In a few minutes I passed into that state of perfect ab- 
straction — " the superior condition " — which separates my 
spirit from the influence of the physical body and world, 
and was soon in direct communication with the mind of 
Solon, the more progressed and enlightened of the two. 
My room was situated in the third story of the house ; 
and, it being winter, the doors and windows were closed. 
It is naturally questioned, by .those who now understand 
that spirits cannot pass through walls, " how, on that 
occasion, did Solon and Pisistrates penetrate to my 
apartment.? " 1 will explain, as it was afterwards shown 
to me by them. 

The two spirits arrived at the entrance of the dwell- 
ing at the precise moment when a gentleman was pass- 
ing in. But as the gentleman closed the door rather too 



THE EESUEEECTION OF THE DEAD. 237 

quickly behind him to admit their passage, one of them 
impressed him to re-open it, and wait the approach of 
his little daughter, who was then engaged at play in the 
front yard. This he did immediately ; bnt supposed, 
like the sexton above mentioned, that the impulse to do 
so originated within his own mind. As he advanced 
from the doorway, a few steps, to meet his child, the 
spirits glided past him into the hall, and thence without 
further obstruction up the two flights of stairs to the 
threshold of my apartment, the door of which was quite 
closed. They would, doubtless, have impressed me to 
open it for them, had I sufficiently recovered from my 
illness to have readily left my couch. 

There was, however, in the house a young girl whose 
business it was to convey things to and from my room 
and attend to my wants ; she was immediately mentally 
and magnetically impressed, by the positive and power- 
ful will-power possessed by Solon, to leave the kitchen 
and come up to my room, to inquire if I was in need of 
anything. This injunction she forthwith obeyed, on the 
supposition that she was discharging the duty assigned 
her of attending to my wants. When she opened the 
door of my room, the spirits entered, and did not make 
me aware of their presence Until the girl went out and 
descended the stairs. Now everything was still and 
tranquil, and a quiet holiness reigned there ; my mind 



238 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIPvITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

drank in the beautiful instructions of Solon, and my 
spirit bowed to the wisdom of this high messenger. 
His, then, impartations of thought do not enlighten the 
present investigation ; I do not, therefore, give them in 
this publication. I have related what occurred at that 
time, thus far, to illustrate the method which spirits fre- 
quently adopt whenever the desire to be present, injpro- 
pria persond, at the circles which form to receive spirit- 
ual communications through the medium of vibrations, 
or through illumination, at the bedside of the weary, 
the diseased, and the dying. 

My own interior experience is rife with instances of 
special providence or interposition on the part of guar- 
dian spirits. They frequently approach me to impart* 
that which instantly changes the train of thought in my 
mind, introducing new and unexpected ideas ; and I not 
unfrequently have received, from these guardians, im- 
pressions which, when implicitly obeyed, have saved me 
from pain, illness, and accident. Indeed, twenty-four 
hours seldcm go by without furnishing me with some 
beautiful illustration and philosophical exemplification 
of the magnetic power and ,the close guardianship of 
spirits. Nor are these interior happy experiences en- 
joyed by me alone ; for there are numerous instances on 
record, showing the providential interposition of minis- 
tering angels, and declaring to us how frequently they 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 239 

have produced impressions by influx of thought, where- 
by many persons have been saved from terrible accidents 
and disastrous misfortune. These impressions are some- 
times termed presentiments, of which, misnamed spirit- 
ual interpositions, I am moved to introduce a few illus- 
trations from the pen of an author who probably never 
designed them to elucidate and confirm our philosophy 
of spiritual intercourse. 

First instance. — " I have heard of several cases of 
people harrying home from a presentiment of fire ; and 
i£r» IT. Calderhood was once, when absent from home, 
seized with such an anxiety about his family, that, with- 
out being able in any way to account for it, he felt him- 
self impelled to fly to them and remove them from the 
house they were inhabiting ;.one wing of which fell 
do'vn immediately afterward. No notion of such amis- 
fortune had ever before occurred to him, nor was there 
any reason whatever to expect it ; the accident originat- 
ing from some defect in the foundation." 

Second instance. — " A circumstance exactly similar 
to this, is related by Stilling, of Professor Bohm, teacher 
of mathematics, at Marburg ; who, being one evening 
in company, was suddenly seized with a conviction that 
lie ought to go home. As, however, he was very com- 
fortably taking tea, and had nothing to do at home, he 
resisted the admonition ; but it returned with such force 



240 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

that at length he was obliged to yield. On reaching his 
house, he found everything as he had left it ; but he 
now felt himself urged to remove his bed from the cor- 
ner in which it stood to another ; but, as it had always 
stood there, he resisted this impulsion also. However, 
the resistance was vain ; absurd as it seemed, he felt he 
must do it ; so he summoned the maid, and with her 
aid drew the bed to the other side of the room ; after 
which he felt quite at ease, and returned to spend the 
rest of the evening with his friends. At ten o'clock the 
party broke up, and he retired home, and went to bed 
and to sleep. In the middle of the night he was awakened 
by a loud crash, and on looking out he saw that a large 
beam had fallen, bringing part of the ceiling with it, 
and was lying exactly *on the spot his bed had oc- 
cupied." 

Third instance. — " One of the most remarkable cases 
of presentiment I know, is that which occurred not very 
long since on board one of her Majesty's ships, when 
lying off Portsmouth. The officers being one day at the 
mess table, a young Lieutenant P. suddenly laid down 
his knife and fork, pushed away his plate, and turned 
extremely pale. lie then rose from the table, covering 
his face with his hands, and retired from the room. 
The president of the mess, supposing him to be ill, sent 
one of the young men to inquire what was the matter. 



TIIE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 241 

At first Mr. P. was unwilling to speak ; but on being 
pressed, he confessed that lie had been seized with a 
sudden and irresistible impression that a brother he had 
then in India was dead. ' He died,' said he, ' on the 12th 
of August, at six o'clock : I am perfectly certain of it.' 
No arguments could overthrow this conviction, which, 
in due course of post, was verified to the letter. The 
young man had died at Cawnpore, at the precise period 
mentioned." 

Here, also, I am impressed to quote another similar 
fact related as occurring in our own country ; thousands 
such could be collected ; but I select this as a 

Fourth instance. — "Joseph Wilbur, a celebrated 
Quaker preacher, who lived at Trenton, Washington 
county, New York, ran to his barn in a great hurry, one 
day, about ten years since, to saddle his horse, saying 
that * Thomas Searl, our neighbor, is fixing up a rope 
behind his barn to hang himself. I see the whole thing 
before me distinctly. Let me hurry, or I shall be too 
late.' Thus he dashed down the road to have an inter- 
view with his neighbor Searl, and j ust arrived as the un- 
happy man was about to j ump from a crotch of the tree, 
with a noose about his neck. Joseph talked to the man, 
and saved him from certain death." 

The phenomena of spiritual clairvo3 r ance or mental 

illumination have also been more or less familiar to 
11 



242 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

well-organized and impressible minds in all ages of 
the world. The high enlightenment and prophetic 
power possessed by most of the Bible authors ; and the 
serene, discriminating penetration of some philosophical 
intellects, into the profound mysteries of science and 
moral truth ; are alone referable to that development 
and expansion of the internal senses, and to that quick- 
ening of the interior and intuitive faculties of the hu- 
man soul, which constitutes the true superior condition. 
As independent testimony of the essential verity of 
these remarks, I quote an English authoress, Mrs. Crowe, 
who has very carefully detailed many interesting in- 
stances of unequivocal clairvoyance. The dissimilar 
spiritual appearances presented to different persons, 
while they are experiencing the various degrees of en- 
joyment and comprehension which result from spiritual 
perception, are owing to the different degrees of the 
advancement of their minds ; also to the state or degree 
of the freedom of their spirits from their bodies, by 
which they are sometimes, by a very partial emancipa- 
tion, only in a transitional state ; when the same thing 
presents a different appearance from what it does to one 
more liberated and fully in the superior condition. 
This is beautifully illustrated in the following : 

First instance. — " The late Mr. John Ilollowav, of 
the Bank of England, brother to the engraver of that 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 243 

name, related of himself that being one night in bed 
with his wife and unable to sleep, he had fixed his eyes 
and thoughts with uncommon intensity on a beautiful 
star that was shining in at the window, when he sud- 
denly found his spirit released from his body and soar- 
ing into that bright sphere. But, suddenly seized with 
anxiety for the anguish of his wife, if she discovered 
his body apparently dead beside her, he returned, and 
re-entered it with difficulty (hence, perhaps, the violent 
convulsions with which some somnambules of the high- 
est order are awakened). lie described that returning, 
was returning to darkness ; and that while the spirit 
was free, he was alternately in the light or the dark, 
accordingly as his thoughts were with his icife or with 
the starr 

Second instance. — '"'Plutarch relates that a certain 
man, called Thespesius, having fallen from a great 
height, was taken up apparently dead from the shock, 
although no external wound was to be discovered. On 
the third day after the accident, however, when they 
were about to busy him, he unexpectedly revived ; and 
it was afterward observed, to the surprise of all who 
knew him, that, from being a vicious reprobate, he 
became one of the most virtuous of men. On being 
interrogated with respect to the cause of the change, he 
related that, during the period of his bodily insensi- 



244 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

bility, it appeared to liim that he was dead, and that he 
had been first plunged into the depths of an ocean, out 
of which, however, he soon emerged, and then, at one 
view, the whole of space was disclosed to him. Every- 
thing appeared in a different aspect, and the dimensions 
of the planetary bodies, and the intervals between them, 
were tremendous, while his spirit seemed to float in a 
sea of light, like a ship in calm waters. lie said that 
the souls of the dead, on quitting the body, appeared 
like a bubble of light, out of which a human form w T as 
quickly evolved. That of these, some shot away at once 
in a direct line, with great rapidity, while others, on the 
contrary, seemed unable to find their due course, and 
continued to hover about, going hither and thither, till 
at length they also darted away in one direction or an- 
other 

" Thespesius was then informed by one of them, that 
he was not dead, but that he had been permitted to 
come there by a Divine decree, and that his soul, which 
was yet attached to his body, as by an anchor, would 
return to it again. Thespesius then observed that' he 
was different to the dead by whom he was surrounded, 
and this observation seemed to restore him to his recol- 
lection. They were transparent, and environed by a 
radiance, but he seemed to trail after him a dark ray, 



THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD. 245 

or line of shadow.* These spirits also presented very 
different aspects ; some were entirely pervaded by a 
mild, clear radiance, like that of the full moon ; 
through others, there appeared faint streaks, that di- 
minished this splendor ; while others, on the contrary, 
were distinguished by spots, or stripes of black, or of a 
dark color." f 

Third instance. — "Dr. Passavent mentions a peasant 
boy who, after a short but painful illness, apparently 
died, his body being perfectly stiff. He, however, re- 
vived, complaining bitterly of being called back to life. 
He said he had been in a delightful place, and seen his 
deceased relations. There was a great exaltation of the 
faculties after this; and having been before rather 
stupid, he now, while his body lay stiff and immovable 
and his eyes closed, prayed and discoursed with elo- 
quence. He continued in this state for seven weeks, 
but finally recovered." 

Fourth instance. — " The case related by Lady Fan- 
shawe, of her mother, is very remarkable, from the 
confirmation furnished by the event of her death. 
' My mother, being sick of a fever,' says Lady Fan- 
shawe, in her memoirs, 'her friends and servants 

* See " Great Harmonia," vol. i. p. 1G8 — description of the um- 
bilical cord. 

f See "Great Harmonia," vol. ii. — a vision concerning the origin 
of evil. Also, other volumes by the author. 



246 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

thought her deceased, and she lay in that state for two 
days and a night ; bat Mr. AVinslow, coming to comfort 
my father, went into my mother's room, and looking 
earnestly in her face, said, " She was so handsome, and 
looked so lovely, that he could not think her dead ; " 
and, suddenly taking a lancet out of his pocket, he cat 
the sole of her foot, which bled. Upon this, he immed- 
iately caused her to be removed to the bed again, and 
to be rubbed, and such means used that she came to 
life, and, opening her eyes, saw two of her kinswomen 
standing by her (Lady Knollys and Lady Eussell), both 
with great wide sleeves, as the fashion then was ; and 
she said, " Did you not promise me iifteen years, and 
are you come again already ? " which they, not under- 
standing, bade her keep her spirits quiet in that great 
weakness wherein she was ; but, some hours after, she 
desired my father and Dr. Ilowlesworth might be left 
alone with her, to whom she said, " I will acquaint you, 
that during my trance, I was in great grief, but in a 
place I could neither distinguish nor describe ; but the 
sense of leaving my girl, who is dearer to me than all 
my children, remained a trouble upon my spirits. Sud- 
denly I saw two by me, clothed in long white garments, 
and methought I fell down upon my face in the dust, 
and they asked me why I was so troubled in so great 
happiness. I replied, ' O let me have the same grant 






THE RESUEKECTION OF THE DEAD. 247 

that was given to Ilezekiah, that I may live fifteen 
years, to see my daughter a woman ! ' to which they 
answered, ' It is done ! ' and then at that instant I awoke 
out of my trance ! " And Dr. Ilowlesworth did affirm 
that the day she died made just fifteen years from that 
time.' " 

It is proper to understand, that the influx of princi- 
ples into the minds of certain individuals is a result of 
the peculiar constitution and development of such 
minds ; and there is no direct and immediate influx of 
revelations from the Central Soul of the Universe, the 
Divine Mind, as is supposed and taught by theologians. 
Therefore, he whose mind is unfolded, or whose spirit- 
ual perceptions are extended to a higher sphere of knowl- 
edge, can comprehend more of the material and 
spiritual universe than ordinary minds can conceive of ; 
because simply such a mind perceives and understands 
all that exists beneath his exalted sphere of investiga- 
tion. Thus every mind sees, comprehends, and ex- 
presses truth in proportion to its degree of development, 
and on a plane with its intellectual and spiritual eleva- 
tion. Hence, all true inspiration must be spontaneous ; 
it must spring from the deep foundations of Nature, and 
seek an expression through the human soul and tongue, 

J. CD CD s 

as the ten thousand rivulets, starting from the pregnant 



248 philosophy or SPIRITUAL intercourse. 

side of stupendous mountains, converge and mingle in 
the distant valley, and form the mighty ocean. Every 
mind will see just that class of truths which his degree 
of spiritual exaltation will enable him to see ; and noth- 
ing more. I perceive in the world very many contribu- 
tions of truth, hundreds of tributaries of immortal 
principles flowing up from Nature's mighty depths 
through musicians, and mechanics, and artists, and 
scientific men, and chemists, and electricians, and phil- 
osophers, and poetic moralists, and theologians, and 
politicians, and through men of religious enlightenment 
and elevation, the inspirations and contributions of each 
tending toward a Unity, which unity will ultimately 
form one grand system of social, philosophical, and 
theological Revelations : thus becoming the Light, the 
Experience, and the concentrated and systematized 
Inspiration of the whole world ! 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 



Before the discovery of America there were almost 
innumerable speculations concerning the existence, ge- 
ography, extent, beauty, commercial advantages, wealth, 
magnificence, and inhabitants of the unknown Conti- 
nent beyond the great waters, the restless Atlantic, 
whose limits had not then been ascertained. Plato al- 
lowed his intelligent love, for republicanism and the 
happiness of the people, to inspire his intuitive and con- 
ceptive powers, aud he imagined a harbinger somewhere 
in the distant and undiscovered realms of this planet — 
a I^ew Atlantis, where art, and science, and philosophy, 
and industry of all hinds, would be taught, justly re- 
munerated, and cheerfully embraced by every inhabi- 
tant of that blessed country. Xolena, too, whose desul- 
tory meditations upon the glories of " An enchanted 
Isle," or upon " The Kingdom of the Gods," so closely 
resembled the prophetic contemplations of the Isaiah 
of the Primitive History as to have become affiliated or 
blended with the writings of the latter, and thus voted 

canonical, and whose biography and thoughts are there- 
11* 



250 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

fore buried in the history of other persons, — this phil- 
osopher indulged his hopes that some new continent 
would ultimately be discovered, where righteousness 
could alone exist, where a generous, immaculate, phil- 
osophical King (whose genealogy could be only traced 
to the royal races of the skies), would rule the multitude 
and disseminate perpetual blessings and concord over 
his divine kingdom, and where a free commerce would 
be enjoyed between the gods of the firmament and the 
inhabitants of the Enchanted Isle ! These were truth- 
ful prophecies. But of what ? Surely the American 
' continent has been discovered and populated. Its gi- 
gantic mountains, its rolling valleys, its charming lakes 
and rivers, its rich soil, its wide-extending prairies, its 
commercial advantages, its geological wonders — all have 
been sought and found ; but where is the " New Atlan- 
tis " ? — where the " Enchanted Isle " ? — where the 
" Promised Land " ? — where the " Kingdom of the 
Gods"? — where? Listen! Echo responds, "Here!" 
But whence proceeds that silver sound ? Whence that 
deep, rich, joyous voice ? Lo ! it is a voice from the 
Spirit-Land, — the revelations of one who has surveyed 
the country beyond the grave ! 

Let us henceforth cease our imaginary speculations 
with reference to the appearance of the home of the 
soul ; let us hurl to the ground all fragmentary and 



A VOICE FEOM THE SPIEIT-LAXD. 



251 



false analogical reasonings concerning the condition of 
the inhabitants of the spheres- — reasonings which com- 
pel us in our conclusions to locate a perfect hell here, a 
partial hell there, a moderate heaven on the left, and a 
complete heaven on the right ! Tea, let us be still ; let 
us listen, with our understandings open, to the reveal- 
ments of him who has sought, and found, and returned 
with fruit from the promised land — the kingdom of the 
righteous ! 

My readers remember, I presume, the interesting spir- 
itual communication which I received from the pure 
and highly enlightened spirit of James Victor Wilson, 
and which commences on page 176, 1st vol. of the 
" Great llarmonia," They will also recall to mind his 
then very impressive concluding observations.* He 
says : 

" The society of which I am a member is in numbers 
innumerable. YTe are fond of travelling through the 
different societies and portions of the Spirit-Home. 

" On earth I was fond of mathematics and kindred 
studies ; my desire for these acquirements is now totally 



* The author is strongly moved to counsel the inquirer to read Mr. 
Wilson's first communication in connection with his second relation, 
given in this work ; for there is probably no one circumstance so il- 
lustrative of the law of progress as the contrast, in point of intelli- 
gence, between these communications. 



252 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

satiated. Spiritual affinities are my studies now ; and, 
ere long, I will disclose what I have learned." 

I then informed the reader that his concluding words 
referred to some future disclosures concerning spiritual 
things, which, when I received them from him, should 
be faithfully presented to the world. . I am able to pre- 
sent those disclosures now ; for, on the morning of the 
25th of November, 1850, he caused me to feel his per- 
sonal nearness arid desire to enter the house in which I 
am at present residing. Accordingly, I proceeded to the 
door, opened it, and admitted my fraternal visitor. By 
previous request the family granted me the exclusive 
use of the parlor for this spiritual interview ; we entered 
this room together, closed the door, and thus passed into 
the sacred sanctuary of interior communion. In three 
or four minutes I abstracted my mind by an act of vo- 
lition, from outer things ; resigned my whole being to 
the invisible magnetism which descended upon and .per- 
vaded me ; and readily glided beyond the trammels of 
the body, and became as near a spirit as a person can 
possibly be and maintain his relationship to the physical 
organism. My brilliant visitor stood affectionately by 
my side ; though his feet did not descend lower than 
eighteen inches above the floor, — because a stratum of 
atmosphere, more or less dense, is always necessary for 
the spiritual organism to walk or stand upon. I was 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 253 

sufficiently in sympathy with him, to hear, to understand, 
and to enjoy, all he so musically dictated ; and, at the 
same time, I had the requisite control of my physical 
system to act in the capacity of an amanuensis. All 
conditions being now pure and proper, he thus addressed 
me : 

" Again, my brother, I come to thee — again to tell 
thee of my heavenly treasures ! To tell thee of Love's 
exceeding loveliness, and of Wisdom's unutterable mag- 
nificence and infinite harmony. Bat my thoughts 
cannot readily flow into earthly words ; because heav- 
enly truths require a heavenly language to reveal them. 

" O, what gorgeous Truths — what celestial Principles 
— what divine Powers and holy attributes uphold the 
Universe ! I have seen innumerable beauties, and 
experienced unutterable joy. I have gazed upon num- 
berless firmaments ; and have become wealthy in the 
mighty blessings which they unfold. 

" I have had my being unrolled by the spontaneous 
workings of Eternal principles, as the sun unrolls the 
flower ; and now I come to divide with thee the happi- 
ness which I experience — the inexpressible riches of my 
endlessly progressive life ! 

" Yea, truly, there are no bounds to this glorious 
Universe ; there are no limits to the Infinitude in which 
it rolls. 



254 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

" Accompanied by friendly spirits whose attractions 
were analogous to those my spirit feels, I have visited 
worlds upon worlds, — have already gazed and walked 
upon more planets, bedecked with immortal life, than I 
had believed in being, — and yet, my lovely companions, 
some of whom have lived in the Celestial Lands for 
. many centuries, say ' that I have inhaled but the fra- 
grance of a few of those flowers which grow on the 
margin of the Infinite Ocean ! ' 

" Yea, there are no bounds to the spheres in which 
we live — no death in the Homes of the Angels! 

" I have seen unfold universes of immeasurable mag- 
nitude ; and, upon them, I have seen move countless 
constellations of minds, developed by eternal principles 
and endowed with an inheritance of endless duration. 

" And, O my brother, how omnipotent and omni- 
present is the Law of Love ! How holy is that Great 
Divinity which breathes, throughout the angelic lands, 
an element of universal joy, — a principle of eternal 
attraction and infinite happiness ! To meditate upon, 
and to study, the innumerable and infinite ramifications 
of this Great Love Principle, fills the searching soul 
with indescribable satisfaction. 

" The principle of Divine Love develops and deter- 
mines all spiritual affinities. These affinities I have 
sought out and studied assiduously ; and the heavenly 



A VOICE FKOM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 255 

consequences which they unfold spread themselves out 
before me in countless varieties like the bespangled 
wings of the distant h'rmaments. 

" lint the poverty of thy language, my brother, is a 
great obstruction to my revealments. How can I tell 
thee, in terrestrial words, of the beauties, the blessings, 
the joys, the perpetually unfolding happinesses, which 
the Law of Love displays before me ? 

" Q, what joy to be emancipated from the slavery of 
self-love ; to be introduced into the glorious Liberty of 
universal principles ! And the workings of these prin- 
ciples : — what soul-subduing music ! What soul-refin- 
ing harmony ! 

" What inexpressible joy to behold, according to the 
operations of these principles, the quickness and beauty 
of our marriages ! 

" Individuals are attracted to one another from all 
worlds ; and where true adaptation exists there is a true 
marriage and union of soul with soul ; and so perfect 
and enduring is it, that all the attractions and enchant- 
ments of the spirit-world act always upon the conjugally 
conjoined as upon one living soul. Thus in the celes- 
tial empire c they neither marry nor are given in mar- 
riage, but they are as the angels,' who find their 
eternal associates in accordance with the universal prin- 
ciples of spiritual affinity. 



256 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

u The God-joined spirits are never sundered; but 
what man hath joined, by no other authority than cus- 
tom or inclination, is here severed ; for nothing but 
Truth — Holy, Eternal Truth — can exist in the Homes 
of the Angels ! " 

Here I individualized a thought, and mentally asked 
friend Wilson the following question : " Have the angels 
an£ employments analogous to those on the earth ? " 

And he smilingly replied : " Nay, for the angels are 
not in Slavery ! " 

Thinking friend Wilson referred to the political, 
physical, or mental slavery, with which our earth 
abounds, and not perceiving their bearing upon his 
reply, I again mentally inquired : " How does slavery 
give mankind employments unlike the occupations of 
spirits % " 

He answered : " Thou understandest not my thought. 
The inhabitants of your earth are in bondage because 
they are immersed in things too material. A beautiful 
exterior is the chief desire among them ; or else, their 
desires are bounded by the circle of self-love, and their 
lives are devoted to personal gratification. Therefore I 
mean, my brother, that mankind labor to accumulate 
and cultivate the externals of life ; and thus they toil 
to acquire that, which is exceedingly material, and pass- 
eth away like the evening breeze on the wings of night. 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIEIT-LAND. 257 

The real joys and permanent realities of existence are 
unpurchasable ; for they constitute the life and happi- 
ness of the angels — both on earth and in the Celestial 
Homes. We have, therefore, only those things which 
are real, elevating, and eternal, and we labor not ; but 
mankind are in slavery ; because, not being advanced 
in pure Wisdom, they seek those things which are not 
real and permanently beneficial ; hence their search is 
always attended with exceeding labor and dissatisfaction. 
" Behold the wide-spread earth, rich with supplies for 
human wants ! Behold the bright and brilliant sun, 
shedding its light and heat abroad ! Behold the gor- 
geous magnificence of the wide-expanded firmament ! — 
surely, these things cannot be purchased ; they exist 



FOE ALL ! 



!» 



Here I inquired : " Why do you call the inhabitants 
of the spheres, angels f " 

"Because," he replied, "the chief employment of 
spirits is the transmission of Thoughts, Truths, and 
Affections, from circle to circle and from sphere to 
sphere. Happiness and progression consist in receiving 
and imparting — in unfolding and assisting others to 
unfold — in seeking the Great Divinity, and in impart- 
ing to others the results of our celestial investigations : 
Angels, therefore, are messengers of Thoughts, Truths, 
and Affections ! 



258 nilLOSOPTIY OF spiritual intercourse. 

" Think not, ray brother, to find happiness and pro- 
gression in the sphere of Self -Love, or in anything 
which subjugates the spiritual to the material ; for I 
have learned, that the individual must lose itself in the 
general sphere of being and affection ere happiness is 
attained or progress made. 

" O, what joy — what unutterable joy — to be emanci- 
pated thus from earth ! And yet the sublime principle 
of spiritual affinity causes me to feel the exact relation- 
ships or friendships which subsist between me and the 
inhabitants of your planet ! Tell this,* my brother, to 
those dear friends and relatives who knew me on the 
earth. 

" O, what ineffable delight to be an angel — to see 
with spiritual eyes — to hear with the spiritual sense — 
to inhale the holy fragrance of immortal flowers (the 
fair emblems of Purity and Truth) — to understand 
with a spiritual understanding ; to search the inex- 
haustible truths of an Eternal Father — to enjoy the 
divine Life of his nature, which is Love, and Love only 
forever and forever ! 

* The author has never seen the friends and relatives of this de- 
parted brother, ard does not, therefore, know where they reside. 
But should they seo this communication from their (to them) 
" deceased relative," they will at least read what he directs me to 
say to them. — If they believe it, it will pour gladness into their 
hearts. 






A VOICE FROM THE SPIEIT-LAND. 259 

"O, the music of the universe, — how melodious, how 
inexpressibly sublime and stupendous — are the silent, 
still musical workings of Immutable Principles ! To 
me, my brother, the universe is a musical instrument 
on which the Great Divinity is perpetually expressing 
the infinitely 'diversified harmonies of his nature, which 
is immeasurably deep and altogether unchangeable ! 

" I speak of the Universe, my brother, as if its dimen- 
sions and sublime realities were known to me ; but I 
have as yet seen and comprehended only a fragment of 
formation. (I do not use the word " Creation," for 
there is, properly speaking, nothing absolutely created.) 
The Whole System is a volume which even the highest 
seraph has not altogether read. 

" In the centre of all formation is the Fountain of 
Love ; it floweth forth throughout all existences ; and 
we drink from it as from an ocean of pure water ! 

" And our Law is Love ! From this Law we never 
flee ; wheresoever we go there it pursueth us ; yet we 
feel the action of no Law external to ourselves. For 
each " is a Law unto himself ; " and, I repeat, there is 
no antagonism here, only a divine emulation ; no abso- 
lute discord, only relative degrees of harmony. Yea, 
in all the love-circles, and in all the circles of wisdom, 
wherein the principles of spiritual affinities perform 



260 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

their work so musically, there is no discord, only joy 
and peace — Eternal Peace ! 

" The angel's home is truly a ' house of many man- 
sions.' The spirit-land is indeed a country of undying 
charms and positive attractions. It is brilliant with in- 
numerable societies ; and like sparkling rivers flow forth 
the different manifestations of love they bear to one 
another ! And, my brother, I will disclose to thee an 
arcanum: Those spirits tohieh emanate from, the earth, 
or from any other planet in the universe, are intro- 
duced into that society for which they entertain the 
most congenial sympathies or affections. 

" The love-circles and the wisdom-circles also, are just 
six in number — six grand divisions of spiritual holiness 
and inexpressible joy ! In the first three spheres or 
spirit-worlds, all the innumerable societies are termed 
Spiritual Circles, because they form an IMAGE of 
the Great Divinity ; but those societies in the three 
higher spheres are termed Celestial Circles, because 
they contribute a LIKENESS of the Great Divinity, 
the Infinite Father — from whom proceedeth Love and 
Wisdom, and unto whom floweth, through all, yea all, 
spirits on all earths and in all spheres, the countless joys 
and emotions which form the sum of all sentient exist- 
ence ! 

" Undeveloped individuals who are interested more in 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 261 

personal gratifications than in causing happiness to 
others, are, immediately after death, by the principle of 
spiritual affinity, introduced into the first sphere or cir- 
cle of the second sphere ; which circle is termed Self 
Love. 

u And lonely individuals — or those who are unmarried 
in truth (though they may have been attached on earth 
by human laws to some companion), and who are yet 
seeking (because they feel drawn towards) their proper 
and eternal associate — such, are introduced into the sec- 
ond circle in the same sphere ; and this circle is called 
Conjugal Love. 

" And thus, my brother, the spheres are peopled and 
bedecked with harmonious associations. These glorious 
assemblages of angels call to, and answer, each other ; 
and spontaneously they mingle their innumerable voices 
into music and harmony. The third circle is called 
Parental Love ; the fourth circle Fraternal Love ; 
the fifth circle Filial Love ; and the sixth circle Uni- 
versal Love. The sixth is particularly redolent with 
inexpressible Holiness and pure Wisdom. But they all 
are crimsoned and infinitely variegated with heavenly 
pleasures. * To behold all this, and to feel all this, fills 

* For a more minute consideration of these " circles," I refer the 
reader to i: The Philosophy of Happiness and Progression," in the 
Great Harmonia, vols. IV. and V. Also in the " Temple" 



262 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

in}- soul with unutterable ecstasy — a serene, sweet, phil- 
osophical joy, which none but angels know ! " 

(Brother "Wilson's face and head were glowing, when 
he uttered the above, with a soft clear light which quite 
dazzled my spiritual perceptions, and moved my mind 
with sympathetic pleasure. This light is visible at the 
hour of departure from this sphere, enveloping the head 
of the dying. See page 1G5, vol. i., u Great Ilarmonia." 
Brother Wilson thus continued :) 

" AVliat an infinite system of education ! How sweetly 
are we taught ! How cprickly do we learn the sublime 
mysteries of life — the secrets of happiness /* 



* It is sometimes thoughtlessly and recklessly said, in substance, 
by those whose minds are not elevated above prejudice and selfish- 
ness, "Why, if I believed these things as you profess to, I would 
take my fill of sin — I would steal, and murder ; and, if I should get, 
in any manner, embarrassed or fatigued with life and sensual gratifi- 
cations, would commit suicide and glide into heaven." To such un- 
educated and misdirected minds I am impressed to say, If you had 
my faith you woidd act altogether different. In the first place, you 
would not sin because you would know that vice injures yourself, dis- 
turbs your neighbor, and brings misery and despair upon the soul. 
Sin Ls self -punishing and self -destructive ; it is this decay which ren- 
ders the sinner miserable. In the second place, you would not commit 
suicide because you would know that heaven is a condition of mind, 
and not a locality; therefore, that you could not obtain happiness 
without that righteousness of motive and propriety of life, which alone 
render the soul harmonious and capable of heaven or enjoyment. In 
the third place, you would strive to be a man of Principle. For a 
person who could thus thoughtlessly express himself, is virtually 



A voice from the spirit-land. 263 

" Some minds learn great truths in a few days ; but 
many, who pass from the earth into the spirit-world, I 
have seen, are very slow to disrobe their minds of error; 
and such are detained in the first circle until all their 
theories are displaced by Truths; their faith by Knowl- 
edge ; t\\G\Y jpricle by Humility ; their imcharitableness 
by Fraternal Love ; and their terrestrialism by realiza- 
tion of Spirituality and permanent realities. 

" Tell the earth's inhabitants, mv brother, to free 
themselves of all rudimental things — of all unldndness 
and terrestrialism — ere they depart for this blessed and 
beautif ul country ! Because we can see the motives, 
the slate, and the intentions of every mind that comes 
to dwell amono; us. 

" Should any misdirected individuals desire to bring 
with them from their earthly habitation (what they can- 
not enter here) the seeds of hypocrisy — of envy or jeal- 
ousy ; of hatred or animosity y of prejudice or retalia- 

acknowledging himself to be an unsafe member of society ; that he 
never does good for the love of doing good (which he would do if he 
had ray faith), but that he acts from fear alone ; serves God because 
he fears the devil ; is good because the rod waves over his back ; in a 
word, that he is a poor, unhappy slave to his prejudices and selfishness, 
and deserves the compassion of all good and benevolent minds. 
"Whilst if he had my faith he would forthwith strive to rise above those 
evils and errors which atHict society, and set his standard of progress 
and improvement as high as Friend Wilson counsels him to do in the 
succeeding paragraphs. 



264: PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

tion / of discord or dispute / we quickly perceive and 
pity the condition of such minds, and, as far as external 
aid can avail anything, we assist them to unfold the 
sweeter elements of their nature. But we are still 
more secure from the invasions of terrestrial isms (or 
earthly corruptions) than I believed previous to leaving 
the earth. Our great security consists in this (and my 
soul throbs with serene joy to relate it), the seeds of 
discord and misdirection cannot germinate here, be- 
cause we have no soil in which to cast them. 

" Tell the earth's inhabitants, my brother, that should 
any of them come here with thoughts of unkindness 
burning in their mouths for utterance — tell them those 
thoughts must remain unsjpohen, and be left to bum 
themselves to Purity. For we have no language 
whereby to express untruths, neither unkindnesses ; and 
no one amongst us will give audience to unheavenly 
tilings. This is a glorious truth — a grand and happy 
truth ; one that I early learned, and now relate 
with joy ! 

"No one here misunderstands another ; for we are 
all transparent ; our interiors are seen by the inhabitants 
of each society ; and Righteousness prevails throughout 
the Spirit-Land. 

" Ko one here misappreciates another ; for, being 
well unfolded in pure wisdom, we judge with a riglite- 



A VOICE FEOM THE SPIEIT-LAND. 265 

ous judgment; and Justice pervades all the habitations 
of the angels. Justice presides in our Father's house, 
and reigns throughout its many mansions. 

" Like a peacef al river, Wisdom springeth up and 
flo.wetli over all the subordinate circles or societies, 
which are in number innumerable. It is like a mighty 
receptacle in which are deposited those everlasting 
pearls, the choice thoughts, affections, and memories of 
these Celestial Lands. 

"And we have contemplations so exceedingly im- 
mense, so immeasurably great and beautiful, that the 
Love and Life of the Universe appear open to our 
thoughts, and we drink of their infinite depths and 
thirst no more with the thirst of anxiety. 

" As a tree spreadeth its branches over the weary 
traveller, and delighteth his sense with sweet perfume, 
even while he smiteth it to obtain its fruit, so do the an- 
gelic spheres — the spirit- worlds — spread themselves over 
the earth's inhabitants, yielding them, in the still hours 
of life's repose, joy and holy inspiration ! 

"Yea, my brother, Time and Space, prejudice and 
misdirection, discord and other terrestrialisms, which 
are known on the earth, are to us, as it were, annihila- 
ted, for we are free ! — free, as Truth maketh free her 
disciples ! And the Light which Truth giveth cannot 

be extinguished — it is the Life of the Universe. 
12 



266 PHILOSOPIIY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

" Behold ! my heloved companions have now come 
for me ! To-day we visit a constellation of peopled 
planets in the south-east expanse of the firmament. 
Our mission is angelic ! we go to open, for the first time 
in that department of the sidereal heavens, a free spirit- 
ual commerce between the second sphere and the in- 
habitants of those Orbs. 

" For a time I leave thee. Let all mankind feel 
themselves as a harmonious congregation in the sanctu- 
ary of the Great Divinity; let them prepare for an 
emanation of immortal truths from our spheres ; let 
them tune their souls to that silvery cadence which min- 
gles with the music of the spheres, is echoed by the 
angels, and vibrates in the bosom of the Father; let 
them send forth their voices in thanksgiving and joy ; 
for, in harmony with the convictions of many among 
them, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand ! " 

Our angelic brother thus concluded his second im- 
pressive and sublime discourse. It will be very readily 
perceived, by comparison of the two communications, 
that his spirit has advanced far in the Sphere of Yv r is- 
dom. O, that the reader could have seen the radiant 
expression of his countenance, when he exclaimed, 
' Behold ! my companions have come for me ; our mis- 
sion is angelic," etc. This unexpected exclamation di- 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 2G7 

verted my attention from the aet of writing, and direc- 
ted it to the observation oifive personages who had just 
that moment arrived from the second sphere. They 
were evidently to accompany him to the "south-east 
portion of the sidereal heavens." All this apparently 
was done to make me realize the entire and complete 
naturalness of the habits of the inhabitants of the 
spirit-land, and the gentle and pleasing character of 
their consociations. 

On completing the record of his sweetly breathed 
communication, I immediately proceeded to open the 
doors for friend "Wilson's departure. With my spirit- 
ual perceptions I witnessed his egression ; also I saw 
him meet and salute his five beauteous companions, who 
were associated in conversation together near the house. 
When he joined and embraced them, they, with their 
eyes sparkling with undying friendship, and their 
countenances beaming with the soft brightness or radi- 
ations of entire devotion, expressed much joy, and ex- 
hibited the sparkling reciprocations of intelligent affec- 
tion. I stood as calmly as I could, and contemplated 
those harmonious minds in their deliberations. What 
an association of great, good, and wise beings ! Even 
physically speaking, this heavenly tableau was inex- 
pressibly beautiful. Each one seemed like, an embodi- 
ment of personal beauty — of symmetry and proportions 



268 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL intercourse. 

indescribable. There was an exquisite embonpoint 
about the anatomical developments of these beings, so 
unearthly and yet so completely an amplification of the 
rudiments of that personal beauty sometimes seen on 
earth, that to attempt to describe it would be to carnal- 
ize the most significant element of spiritual elegance. 
I dwell on the beauty of these personages, because they 
were isolated or removed from the presence of far more 
princely beings, whom I have also seen, and because 
the contrast between them and the forms of earth was 
so intensely favorable to the proper appreciation of 
their angelic loveliness, that I could not resist a few 
critical observations. 

As I have said, I contemplated those concordant 
minds while they were engaged in their premeditations 
with regard to the objects and incidents pertaining to 
their blessed mission. When they were all in readiness 
to depart — their numbers being coupled, two walking 
together — friend Wilson gave me a parting glance 
beaming with fraternal love, and the whole party passed 
very rapidly away in the direction of their assigned 
duties. Immediately upon beholding this, I returned to 
my ordinary condition. 

Since the above recorded interview with him, friend 
Wilson has promised me another communication, which 
he says will particularly refer to the analysis of the 



A VOICE FROM THE SPIRIT-LAND. 269 

causes of social evil among men, with special reference 
to the arrangement of human society in harmony with 
the structure of the heavenly associations — thus unfold- 
ing literally the kingdom of heaven on earth — thus, 
finally, responding to the prayers of the philanthropic 
and the righteous who have for centuries asked, though, 
seldom with an understanding heart, the supernal pow- 
ers to hasten the impending millennium. With regard 
to this future communication, I can only say, that, 
when our beloved brother is ready to impart it, I will 
endeavor to be faithful to my occupation as his aman- 
uensis, and a correct account of his pure and elevating 
thoughts shall be presented to the world. 



WHAT IS TRUE RELIGION? 



Actuated by the profoimdest convictions of duty, 
theological architects have constructed, from a combi- 
nation of right and wrong materials, a vast doctrinal 
labyrinth ; and now, so far from being in the simple 
truth, they seem irretrievably lost in the mysterious 
►windings of this amazing immensity. Centuries ago, 
and about the retiring of the period of deification, 
— when fathers, chieftains, kings, and other superiors, 
were feared and worshipped by inferiors, — the opinion 
was conscientiously entertained and promulgated, that 
the patriarchs were supernaturally endowed and com- 
missioned to convey requests to, and receive communi- 
cations from, the great Jehovah. 

That uninterrupted intercourse with the Deity might 
be secured and preserved, pyramids were founded, em- 
bodying the sacreclness of the catacomb, the monument, 
and the tabernacle. Many generations of incessant toil 
were required for their consummation. And the devo- 
tion, the sanctimonious solemnity, the honest conviction 
of duty, and the purity of motive, which characterized, 



WHAT IS TRUE RELIGION? 271 

prompted, and nerved each person to labor for the 
accomplishment of the holy end, have nowhere a par- 
allel. The materials employed were of quantity suffi- 
cient for the construction of a beautiful city; the 
amount of labor bestowed would, properly organized 
and applied, have gardenized a wilderness; and the 
mass of wealth appropriated and consumed might have 
enriched a nation, and alleviated the wants and glad- 
dened the hearts of thousands. 

For a succession of centuries after their completion, 
the pyramids were sacredized monasteries, consecrated 
to the exclusive use of deified priests and revered pa- 
triarchs. And the supposition universally prevailing 
that these men received unmeasured knowledge from 
mysterious sources, the untaught individual voluntarily 
imposed upon himself arbitrary ceremonies, gloomy 
incarcerations, and sanguinary inflictions. 

But time marched on, and the scene was changed. 
The experience of ages, traditionally preserved, demon- 
strated the inutility and unrealness of long-fostered 
convictions. And multitudes, emboldened by famil- 
iaritv with the sacerdotal orders, and no longer con- 
founded or amazed by their pretensions unestablished 
and unredeemed, boldly interrogated those long-sup- 
posed founts for religious .illumination. But no voice 
was heard. The holy retirements were searched, and 



272 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

naught but lifeless bodies embalmed and interred, and 
a melancholy desolation was visible to the seeker 
after truth, in the place where, alone, it was once be- 
lieved • to exist. And now they stand in desolate 
grandeur, untenanted by priest or prophet, — useless, 
except as marks of humanity's growth, and unadmired, 
except by the intelligent antiquarian, who gathers 
therefrom lessons of oriental architecture, and food 
for his excited imagination. 

And yet the Egyptian Pyramids are not destitute 
of an interior signification. Although once the dor- 
mitories of heliqpolesian prophecies, they are now 
evidences that error is essentially mortal and self- 
destructive. They briefly represent the history of the 
supernatural pyramids, which, composed of mythology 
and theology, received their last addition, and attained 
their greatest magnitude, when dawned the nineteenth 
century. And in them, too, is uttered the fearful 
prophecy, which will be fully verified in the corre- 
sponding abandonment of all long-established theolog- 
ical superstructures, whose angular projections wound 
the sensibilities of every harmonious and well-balanced 
mind ! 

A voluntary departure of their present sacerdotal in- 
habitants is not in the least anticipated ; for these have 
an entailed right to occupy their mysterious apartments ; 



WHAT IS TRUE RELIGION % 273 

but that the people will demand spiritual light and 
knowledge not in their possession, and that they will 
silently escape, and leave their systems desolate, is of 
all things the most absolutely certain. And as the 
ancient Egyptian pyramids have no place in the sacred 
affections, and are only objects of wonder in the present 
age ; even so will modern systems of theology lose their 
influence upon the mind, and be known only as monu- 
ments, indicating the death and burial-place of imper- 
fect forms of thought, to the intelligent interrogator in 
future generations. 

There are many questions concerning the principle of 
righteousness and the nature of human responsibility 
yet unsolved. Present them to the clerical profession, 
considered by the majority of Christendom as spiritual 
guardians and unerring teachers of wisdom, and their 
whole body would be convulsed with protracted discus- 
sion, in character the most complex and unprofitable. 
Hence, it seems unwise to seek information where, as in 
the pyramids, so little is possessed ; and it is unkind to 
increase, with perplexing questions, the expiring strug- 
gles and writhing contortions so manifestly racking the 
entire organization of the supernatural faith. As, how- 
ever, it is agreeable to prudence, kindness, and reason, 
to institute inquiries where alone can be found substan- 
tial and lasting satisfaction, we are justified in opening 
12* 



274 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

our understandings to the influxions of good and truth, 
and in venturing to ask, What is religion? 

In the structure of the material universe are mani- 
fested a distribution of geometrical proportions, in 
order and completeness the most unspeakably perfect 
and beautiful. Every particle in the vast empire of 
visible creation is impressed with a harmoniousness of 
position, distance, density, and movement, altogether 
beautiful and tranquillizing to the contemplative mind. 
Besides the reciprocal relations existing between every 
atom in being, there is an equilibrium of forces presid- 
ing over and actuating all worlds. These forces have 
their expression in the stupendous revolutions which all 
suns and planets make around the great Central Orb of 
all existences. Here are presented the first indications 
of the true religion. 

But approaching nearer ourselves, we cannot but 
perceive the beautiful chemical relations, and the relig- 
ion of individual compounds, that serve to make and 
embellish our present habitation. The generalizing 
mind is irresistibly led to admire the friendship of par- 
ticles in chemical composition — the gentle tendency to 
separate or coalesce according to existing conditions and 
afiinities. And the constant exchange or reciprocation 
of matter and life in the flowering vegetation of our 
earth — together with the unvarying justice displayed 



WHAT IS TRUE RELIGION? 275 

between all ascending forms, from the simplest germ to 
the development of man — is eloquent in proclaiming 
the true religion. And concentrated in man are those 
principles of equality, and attributes of distributive 
justice, which constitute him a being of unequalled per- 
fection and beauty. 

Man is, above all created forms, capable of a just 
conception and appreciation of harmony ; for treasured 
in the human mind are the most beautiful sentiments, 
which demonstrate it to be the highest representative 
of universal creation — indeed, that it is a miniature 
universe. A constant predisposition to individual har- 
mony and happy contemplations, is implanted in the 
spiritual heart of man, whereby his interior and exter- 
nal relations are determined, and his aspiring affections 
are directed to the meditation of infinite love and ever- 
lasting righteousness. 

It is the religious sentiment that enables the mind to 
rightly perceive, and thoroughly enjoy, the exquisite 
harmony existing between odors, sounds, and colors — to 
admire their devotional arrangement and appropriate- 
ness in the order of Nature, and to justly perceive their 
adaptation to human requirements. It is the aspiring 
and venerating element that enables the mind to say, 
with conscious assurance of truth, that the same princi- 
ple which unites any two atoms, and produces right 



276 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

relations everywhere in the physical world, constitutes 
the religion of the soul. 

.Religion teaches man to discriminate and judge be- 
tween- right and wrong ; to desire happiness. It teaches 
him to love the lofty mount, the flowered valley, the 
waving forest, and the fragrant meadow. Religion, 
in its broadest and most comprehensive sense, is the 
principle of righteousness, which governs, in har- 
monious concert^ the world of matter and the world 
of mind. It is the moral and just relationship 
universally existing between all men, spirits, angels, 
i worlds, and the Deity. In a word, it is Universal 
Justice. 

Religion, then, is an integral element eternally estab- 
lished in the human mind ; and, like other associative 
faculties or elements there, it develops itself into a 
variety of manifestations, according to the favorableness 
or unfavorableness of the circumstances by which the 
mind is surrounded and influenced. The great diversity 
of religious institutions, and the numerous rites, cere- 
monies, and obligations imposed by them, prove that 
this sentiment has had, and has now, an incorrect de- 
velopment. 

It may be asked, What was the first misdirection of 
the religious sentiment f 

To which I am impressed to reply, that, reasoning 



WHAT IS TEUE RELIGION? 277 

perceptively, and having no principles of systematic in- 
terpretation, the early inhabitants of our earth believed 
creation to be the fantastic production of invisible be- 
ings, in disposition the most capricious and revengeful. 
The storm, the earthquake, and the volcano, gave rise to 
the most terrible apprehensions. Feeling a sense of 
inward responsibility — a religious obligation to some 
unknown and omnipotent power — they instituted a sys- 
tem of material worship, and relieved the adoring 
sentiment, by acknowledging dependence upon, and 
promising loyal obedience to, their lifeless images. 
Altars were erected, and no sacrifice was omitted that 
was supposed to be pleasurable to the gods. And the 
misdirection increased eve^where. Empowered by the 
false assurance of right, the mother and her child 
yielded to the consuming flame, that Elysium might be 
perfumed and the gods appeased with their sacrificial 
incense. Personal and national invasions were recipro- 
cated ; and, each one believing himself instrumental in 
fulfilling divine purposes, rushed into the arena of con- 
flict with enthusiastic emulation. Such manifestations 
as these, together with the casting of the unoffending 
infant into the Ganges; breaking the father beneath 
the mighty car ; causing the brother to be trampled 
upon by men and horses ; and the brutal subjugation 
of females; were evidences of religious misdirection. 



278 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

History, and the clearly purchased experience of nations, 
justify the conclusion that, in the Barbarian Period, the 
fi?at 9 general form of religious misdirection and wor- 
ship, w.as Superstition. 

What was the second' misdirection of the religious 
sentiment? 

Customs being continually changed by the lapse of 
time and the diversity of circumstances, and new modes 
of thought and expression being consequently developed, 
these things exercised a powerful influence over this 
system of sensuous veneration. The successive modifi- 
. cations of this form of worship, in its passage up to and 
development into a different organization, were almost 
innumerable. The experience of ages having demon- 
strated that long-revered objects and images were un- 
worthy of veneration, the unsatisfied sentiment radiated 
in another direction, which was quite necessary and 
perfectly legitimate. The chiefs and rulers, fathers and 
prophets, were now adored and elevated to the highest 
possible eminence in human estimation. Temples of 
worship were founded and splendidly embellished ; and 
the performance of religious ceremonies became the 
supposed sacred duty, and the general custom. 

Manifestations of deferential regard, resolving itself 
into idolatrous adoration, to the parental heads, became 
frequent. In truth, every real and imaginary obliga- 



WHAT IS TRUE RELIGION? 279 

tion was acknowledged, and every transgression, however 
unimportant, confessed, accompanied with importuni- 
ties for absolution, till indigence and religious servility 
became almost universal. The fathers and the temples 
were mediators between God and His people ; and all 
possible authority was supposed to be in their possession. 
Mental servitude and voluntary submission to existing 
institutions and priestly authorities, were the legitimate 
and unavoidable consequences. In their ignorance, 
they seriously believed that Jehovah's spirit was incar- 
nated and incorporated in priest m and temple. Every 
curse and blessing, every condemnation and forgiveness, 
therefore, was pronounced in the name of the Lord. 
And, jealous of contemporaries, and elevated by infe- 
riors into god-like potentates, ambitious chieftains 
formed immense armies, and battles were fought and 
victories achieved that Jehovah's will might be done in 
the earth. Hence, self-imprisonment in doctrinal dun- 
geons, and external rites, and ceremonies, and wars, 
were generally regarded as expressions of religion, as 
essential to future happiness, and as highly pleasing to 
the Lord ; for in His name, and with His undoubted 
approbation, all deeds were performed. Substantiated 
by ecclesiastical records, the conclusion cannot be es- 
caped, that the patriarchal form of religion was Fanat- 
icism. 



280 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

What is the third misdirection of the religious sen- 
timent f 

The misdirected religious sentiment, and its ramifica- 
tions throughout the historical tissues of past times, at 
length became so wearisome and uncongenial, that the 
more strong and philosophic minds unchained, while 
others had trammelled themselves, and prominently 
assumed an antagonistic position to all received opin- 
ions. The chain* being thus severed, similar minds 
rushed into mental and religious liberty quite unpre- 
pared. Having been, like their ancestors, all their life- 
time subject to bondage, and being now emancipated 
into a sphere of thought with which they were wholly 
unacquainted, these intellects employed their time and 
talents, not in building a more glorious system of faith, 
but in attacking and demolishing the old superstructures. 
And judging superficially, these minds imbibed the 
belief that all religious phenomena, and all sacredized 
rules, institutions, and ceremonies, were conceived in, 
and developed from, the fertile womb of the imagina- 
tion. And these persons losing their fellowship with, 
and sympathy for, those authorities and obligations so 
revered by the disciples of antiquated Theology ; and 
disregarding those duties and precepts considered so 
essentially necessary to present and future happiness ; 
the clergy were arrayed against them, and they against 



WHAT IS TRUE RELIGION ? 281 

the clergy. This diametrical opposition ultimately 
resolved itself into a supposed duty, — a balance-wheel 
thus being formed that, by its philosophic weight, the 
the superstitious and fanatical machine, constructed by 
learned and unlearned theological mechanics of pre- 
vious ages, might move with less irregularity. The 
sense of duty being thus inverted, the beautiful truths 
of immortality and of one great central Cause, were 
almost obliterated from the human mind. The third 
form of religious misdirection, then, is Scepticism. 

Thus it is made manifest, I think, that the wrong 
development of the sentiment of Justice was, in the 
Barbarian Period, Superstition ; in the Patriarchal 
Period, Fanaticism ; and in the Civil Period it is Scep- 
ticism. As in one family, there are the old and young, 
the parent and the child ; so are these three forms of 
religious growth discoverable in every town, country, 
and kingdom of the present century. It is quite un- 
necessary to consult history in order to ascertain the 
truthfulness of this statement ; for an excursion of a 
few leagues into the interior of either of our principal 
States would supply the mind with numerous confirma- 
tory illustrations. The disease is everywhere existing, 
and is contagious ; but it is modified in symptom and 
aspect, according to the great diversity of temperaments 
and circumstances existing in men and society ; for 



282 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

superstition is a fever which gradually increases into 
the transition paroxys?n of fanaticism, of which scepti- 
cism is but the extreme, the inversion, the chill. 

Do the Barbarian and Patriarchal forms of relig- 
ious government still exist f 

Yes, but with certain modifications. It is true that, 
unlike the barbarian, we have no God of caprice, but 
we have of miracle ; we have no fears of volcanic fire, 
but we have of an unquenchable Gehenna ; we have no 
speechless idols, but we have deified Books ; no altars 
whereon to sacrifice our physical being, but we have 
altars upon which to resign and crucify our reason ; 
there is now no crushing of the bodies of men by pon- 
derous cars, but their minds are crushed by prejudices; 
and, unlike the barbarians, we trample not on men with 
horses, but we do with dogmatic Theology. 

Chronicled upon the memory of every mind are ex- 
periences, more or less confirmatory of the truthfulness 
of this comparison ; but no less perfect is the analogy 
between the second age and the present. For, unlike 
the patriarchs, we have no temples, but churches ; no 
adoring and potentializing of men because of their age, 
but we venerate ideas and records because of their an- 
tique origin ; we have no religious invasive hostilities, 
but we have clerical warfare ; no periodical passovers, 
but we have eucharists ; we have no mental restrictions, 



WHAT IS TRUE RELIGION ? 283 

but we are privileged to live and move vjithin the cir- 
cle of a creed. 

Probabl} r the phenomena of religious misdirection have 
never presented themselves so conspicuously as at this 
day; but that they have existed, to a greater or less ex- 
tent, in all previous ages, is plain and undeniable. Al- 
though those rights and ceremonies, and ordinances now 
in use, are of no importance in reforming and making 
men happier ; yet wisdom prescribes their continued use, 
as safeguards against a greater misfortune — religious an- 
archy. The truth of this remark will appear most ob- 
vious to every reflecting parent. It is well known that 
children becoming accustomed to play with articles of 
a particular kind, are exceedingly clamorous, and will 
weep excessively if suddenly deprived of them. The 
judicious parent, therefore, in order to avoid the crea- 
tion of more disturbance than is unavoidably caused by 
their use, will kindly persuade his children to put them 
aside, and will engage their attention with more profit- 
able matters. Now, notwithstanding many men have 
acquired the character of being learned in the science 
and metaphysics of Theology, the fact cannot be dis- 
guised that they are like mere children in- the primary 
school of Nature ; and thus they are ever seeking for, 
and are highly delighted with, marvellous stories and 
supernatural manifestations. Moreover, as necessary 



284 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

appendages and members of their religious organization, 
the ancient fathers bequeathed a number of ordinances, 
in the child-like veneration and use of which the chil- 
dren are alone quiet and content. The persuasive 
admonitions of wisdom, therefore, will ever instruct ; 
but never urge the adoption of any measure, having the 
least tendency to wound the misdirected worshipper ; 
for when such minds grow " to the fulness of the stat- 
ure of a perfect man," they will voluntarily abandon 
present usages, and " put away childish things " forever, 

Let us now inquire, What is the first correct develop* 
ment of true religion? 

The answer is simple. Residing in a material body, 
perfect to the adjustment of an atom, the spirit experi- 
ences a deeply impressive consciousness of entire sym- 
metrical proportions — a sense of self -harmony. Accom- 
panying this most perfect and beautiful of all rudimental 
sensations, is an intuitive perception of the natural Laws 
of life, and a simple, clear understanding of w T hat con- 
stitutes a correct action. How to live so as to secure 
the general order and harmony of one's own existence, 
is the first natural consideration. 

To preserve internal health, so as to enjoy external 
wealth spontaneously bestowed from the inexhaustible 
repositories and treasuries of Nature, is the constant and 
central study of the duly balanced mind. The tenderest 



WHAT IS TRUE RELIGION? 285 

regard for personal happiness ; the simplest means for 
its attainment ; the natural privileges to which body 
and mind arc ever entitled, are correct subjects of con- 
templation and desire, and a due attendance thereunto 
is prescribed by the interior sense of self-responsibility. 
{ And seeking a harmony of objects, forms, and colors, 
presented in the wide-spread fields of ^Nature, to supply 
the eye with its appropriate gratification ; or inventing 
melodious sounds to gratify the ear ; cultivating the 
science of agriculture, or arranging and combining 
articles of food, that a harmony of flavors may please 
the taste ; courting wood-lawn flowers or the violet's 
fragrance to charm the smell ; and living in the most 
simple and natural manner, doing nothing to disturb, 
but everything to augment the harmony of personal ex- 
istence, are the ceremonies and sacred obligations im- 
posed upon man as growing out of,. and associated with, 
i the true religion. 

Deep within, reposes a sweet conception of the Great 
Spirit Father. This interior light refreshes the mind, 
and tints its every thought with celestial beauty, and 
inspires it with immortal aspirations. The untaught 
mind utters no sound, but breathes the fervent prayer 
of gratitude and religious veneration, by living right. 
And the text, growing out of the true sentiment within, 
is, at first, " know thyself ; " and the admonition to 



286 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

personal justice, or the maxim that " charity begins at 
home," is the legitimate discourse. The mind is inter- 
nally convinced, that the duty due its Creator is dis- 
charged in religiously observing and de votionally obeying 
the natural rales of life ; in rightly using every indi- 
vidual endowment. Therefore, the first development 
of the native religious element is Self-Justice. 

Let us again inquire, What is the second correct de- 
velopment of true religion ? 

Well comprehending the material and spiritual rela- 
tions and unity of its self-hood, the mind intuitively 
recognizes a harmonious relationship which should sub- 
sist between every man, and the sacred ties that should 
inseparably unite, and constitute of the whole, a 
Brotherhood. That a friendship may subsist between 
all, and that each may live in reference to the interests 
of the whole, is the constant desire and the object of 
the greatest of all interior affections. The tenderest 
regard for general desires and interests ; the establish- 
ment of the means to render kindly offers reciprocal ; 
the security of the natural rights granted to every man 
by his Maker, and the universal happiness of mankind, 
are objects sought by one prompted by the unfolded 
sentiment of the internal and true religion. 

And studying the harmony of temperaments, and the 
congeniality of individual spheres, to gratify the holy 



WHAT 18 TRUE RELIGION ? 287 

sentiment of conjugal affection ; securing homes, and 
surrounding them with natural and elevating enjoy- 
ments, to improve and delight the parental affection; 
inventing productive machines, and making improve- 
ments in, and advancing the interests of, every science 
and useful art, to satisfy the fraternal affection ; em- 
ploying all deferential expressions in addressing the 
retiring generation and treating them with constant and 
delicate propriety, as prompted by the filial affection ; 
and imbuing with goodness, and strengthening with 
truth, the immortal life-springs of the human soul, so 
that a melodious instrument, composed of individual 
and general interests, may be constructed to concert the 
beautiful harmony of human affairs, to gratify the 
universal affection — are the true baptisms, the true 
sacraments, and the saving ordinances of the internal 
religion. 

And now, the conception of God, and the confidence 
in His eternally-fixed laws and universal providence, 
expand and tower above the religious harmonies of ter- 
restrial creation ; they grow majestic and sublime. It 
is made distinctly manifest, therefore, that the text 
which is appropriate to this state of religious develop- 
ment is, "'Love thy neighbor ; " and the spontaneous 
sermon is, " Do unto others as you would have others do 



288 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

unto you." Hence, the second growth is Fraternal 
Justice. 

If it be asked, What is the third and highest devel- 
opment of true religion f 

I reply that, after understanding the laws of Nature, 
and the unchangeableness of their operation in personal 
and general existences, the mind adopts the principles of 
righteousness, and urges their application. The social 
relations of men are investigated, classified, and harmo- 
nized. Prompted by justice, each man studies himself ; 
his physical and spiritual qualifications, his fitness and 
relative attractions to the nearest or most distant neigh- 
bor ; and a voluntary spontaneous unity is the result. 

Considered as immortal impulses to pure action and 
pleasurable industry, the innate desires are provided 
with pure and congenial gratifications. Religion being 
thus above everything, descends to all departments of 
human life and action ; for commercial interests uniting 
with the agricultural laboratories of every town' and 
state, capacious storehouses will be established, and 
filled with food for general consumption. Land-priv- 
ileges and home-comforts will be guaranteed to every 
inhabitant of the earth. 

True religion will develop its true likeness ! A 
suitable home, and an appropriate tract of land, secured 
to each individual according to his actual want and 



WHAT IS TRUE RELIGION % 289 

capacity to improve ; and well-constructed edifices for 
the accommodation of all ; will be the churches, the 
convents, the monasteries, and the charitable institutions, 
of the true and at present unloved religion. In truth, 
working out in universal society that exquisite harmony 
which is represented in the general structure of the 
body and mind, is the highest possible manifestation of 
the religious sentiment. 

In this stage, the conception of God has grown into 
an idea, grand and beautiful. The idea is that God, 
together with His material, universal Body, is a vast, 
glorious, majestic, kind, and affectionate Personality — 
and that all men, spirits, and angels, are His dearly be- 
loved and eternally progressive children. 

Accompanying this idea, is a knowledge that a rela- 
tionship and correspondence subsists between all worlds, 
forms, and existences in being. That the " Lord God 
omnipotent reigneth," is the fixed but growing convic- 
tion. Indeed, the sublime assurance that God is very 
Man, comprehending within Himself the " all in all," 
blooms like an immortal flower in the heavenly garden 
of the religious mind. The third growth of the religi- 
ous sentiment, therefore, is Universal Justice. 

An immense contrast is here presented — the misdi- 
rection of the native religious element on one side, and 

its correct development on the other. The one is super- 
13 



290 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

stition, fanaticism, and scepticism ; the other, self-jus- 
tice, fraternal justice, and universal justice. There is a 
Heaven-wide difference between them. But it may be 
asked — '- 

How shall we discriminate between the wrong and 
right development of the religious element f 

The intelligent Pilgrim will perceive, I think, that 
the difference between the wrong and right develop- 
ment of the religious sentiment consists in this, that the 
one is the broad, popular road which leads to the de- 
struction of harmony and desolation of mind ; and that 
•the other is the straight and beautiful path, which leads 
to all present and future 'happiness. This religion 
originated in the bosom of the Divine Mind ; it was de- 
posited by Him in the human soul, and will live forever. 
It is every one's guardian spirit ; it is an unextinguish- 
able interior light ; it is, like every other spiritual senti- 
ment, an angel teaching us our duty to the body and 
mind, the parent and brother, the universe and the 
Father. It lives and will live majestically, independent 
of churches, books, and creeds. It has caused, in its 
misdirected and inverted operation, all we most regret 
and deplore ; and it has caused, and will cause, in its 
proper development, all that we most love and admire. 

To ask what a man believes, that we may know whe- 
ther to trust and respect him, is not wise. The most 



WHAT IS TRUE RELIGION ? 291 

religious man, the man nearest the kingdom of Heaven, 
is one who lives consistently with himself, in harmony 
with the neighbor, and considers justice his spiritual 
companion. 

The simplest idea of self -responsibility will grow into 
a compound one, and embrace the whole fraternity of 
human creation ; and acknowledging universal relations 
the mind will expand through all spheres, a devoted 
disciple to the good and the true. To cultivate true reli- 
gion, we must be free, very free from every prejudice 
and circumstance that can trammel or impede its pri- 
mary operation. Nothing must be allowed to reverse 
or prevent its upward tendency. 

First, then, " know thyself ; " secondly, " love thy 
neighbor ; " thirdly, " be good, be truthful, be just, love 
God, and be happy." I know this to be the true but 
unloved religion. 

With regard to truth and mystery, and the necessity 
of reliable spiritual intercourse, James J. G. Wilkinson, 
in his recent classic biography of Swedenborg, the Swed- 
ish philosopher and seer, says : " We study the spirit- 
ual world, because one of us has been there, and re- 
ported it ; and we study the natural world, because it is 
given to us, and our senses are given to it, in short, 
because we did not make it, but it is a divine fact. 



292 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

Whatever we have made ourselves, we do not study, 
which is a sufficient demolition of subjective knowledge. 
Thus, from the spheres a blackness is departing. Mys- 
tery, the mother of the abominations and harlots of the 
earth, is unrolling from theology, philosophy, and 
science; and soon the practical, the only sublime, will 
be all in all. For time w T ill not wait long, after marry- 
ing the mind to experience, before the importance of 
daily life will not only suggest but allow or disallow 
every theory, upon whatever subject put forth. 

. . . . " The lowest experience of all time is rife 
in spiritual intercourse already ; man believes it in his 
fears and hopes, even where his education is against it ; 
almost every family has its legends, and nothing but the 
wanting courage to divulge them keeps back this super- 
naturalism from forming a library of itself. Yea, and 
every mourner, by a freshly-opened grave, shoots with 
untamable love toward departed friends, and bespeaks 
them, w T hile the genius of grief is on him, as persons of 
real and presentable stuff. At such a clever time, 
burial services are but the background on which the 
heart delineates its native skies. This is the sense of 
universal mankind. 

Science, too, is infected with these vulgar apprehen- 
sions ; it cannot shake them off, though it cannot adopt 
them. What would it not give to be rid of mesmerism, 



WHAT IS TRUE RELIGION? 293 

or even of magic and astrology, which it has never 
known how to exterminate % This is hopeless now. 
These griffins of knowledge have. bitten into its sub- 
stance, and must either become sciences, or science dies 
of them. The positive school is precisely that which 
can least resist the invasion of supernaturalism. Many 
materialists already have fallen before it, and sunk, as 
might be expected, into a peculiar unreasoning supersti- 
tion. Nothing can save them but attention to spiritual 
experiences. Add to which, that the scientific men, 
with their deep breaths and fixed objects, are taking the 
path to seership in their own bodies ; . . . for science 
itself is the appointed Seer of the Future. 

"Old experience doth attain, 
To something of prophetic strain." 

Again, if we turn to the arts, electric telegraphs 
make spiritual presence between distant places ; London 
and Edinburgh commune in spaceless conversations. 
Another medium, glowing hotter with world-friend- 
ships, will give mutual sight to the ends of the earth. 
Only sink into the air-mine of community, and India 
and England shall be permanent natural apparitions to 
each other. The mirage is a true sign-post of this con- 
summation. Distance is dying, and will be only repre- 
sented in the altitude of the human perceptions. Mag- 



294 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

netism itself , in its instant rounds, derides and despises 
it ; the very stones appear to each other by its spiritual 
communications ; and shall men, who are one in a 
nobler magnetism, be reproved by the friendships of 
the ground ? " 

In conclusion, I feel impressed to remark, that the 
era of mythology and superstition is fast decaying. 
Ignorance, bigotry, scepticism, fanaticism, intolerance, 
spiritual depression, and all slavery — the great evils 
which now beset mankind — are rapidly dispersing; 
they shall recede entirely from the earth, never again 
to enslave and degrade humanity. This world of 
thought and affection, and of social relations, shall be 
progressively purified, until there shall be unfolded a 
new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth right- 
eousness. And the evils which now exist, shall be 
known only to those who will trace the history of our 
race ; which they will do with mingling feelings of pity 
and regret. By spiritual intercourse we learn that all 
men shall ultimately be joined into one Brotherhood ; 
their interests shall be pure and reciprocal ; their ac- 
tions shall be just and harmonious; they shall be as one 
Body, animated by universal Love and governed by 
pure Wisdom. Man's future is glowing with a beau- 
tiful radiance. The mental sky is fast becoming clear 



WHAT IS TEUE RELIGION? 295 

and serene ; and the scene is one of grandeur and sub- 
limity. Truth will consume all error and artificial 
theology, whose power is weakened, and whose corrup- 
tions are revealed, by the divine light of Nature's mani- 
festations. Yea, all evil and error will be finally 
subdued and banished by the triumph of the principles 
that are good, divine, and unchangeable ; and unright- 
eousness shall be no more! Streams of good and 
healthy inspirations will spring up, and flow down, to 
cleanse and refresh the moral world, on whose advanc- 
ing tide the whole race will ascend to intellectual and 
social harmony, and to a high state of spiritual eleva- 
tion and intercourse. 



HOW TO FORM A SPIRIT CIRCLE. 



The instructions contained in this volume were pub- 
lished over twenty years ago. Experience has demon- 
strated their adaptness to ends sought. Some variety of 
plan is needful, however ; hence the following, from the 
London (Eng.) Spiritualist, * is deemed valuable : An 
experimental trial at home, among family friends and 
relatives, oftei gives the most satisfactory evidence of 
the reality of spiritual phenomena. At the same time, 
as no fully developed medium is present among those 

* An important standard op judgment. — This ably con- 
ducted Journal keeps before the people week by week the following 
most wise and charitable rule : ' ' When reports of the speeches of 
spirits are printed in this Journal, non-Spiritualists slwuld understand 
tliat spirits out of the body are wise or foolish, truthful or untruthful, 
just the same as spirits in tlie body. Moreover, they are but individuals, 
so do not know everything. The statements of a spirit are but the as- 
sertions of an individual; but by comparing the statements of many 
spirits, it may in time be possible to discover in what points they agree, 
and to sift out the unreliable communications. Many spirits cannot see 
each other, any more than ice can see them, and as some of them are 
thus in different states of life, it does not follow that contradictory mes- 
sages are therefore untruthful. Spirits are of different religions, conse- 
quently their teachings do not altogether agree; there is no more uni- 
formity in the next icorld than in this one." 



HOW TO FOEM A SPIRIT CIRCLE. 297 

who have never obtained manifestations before, the 
probability is that there will be no results. Neverthe- 
less, it is a very common thing for striking manifesta- 
tions to be obtained in this way at the first sitting of a 
family circle ; perhaps for every one successful new cir- 
cle thus started without a medium, there are six or seven 
failures, but no accurate statistics on this point have 
yet been collected. When once manifestations have 
been obtained, they will gradually increase in power and 
reliability at successive sittings. The following is a 
good plan of action : 



1. Let the room be of a comfortable temperature, but cool rather 
than warm— let arrangements be made that nobody shall enter it, and 
that there shall be no interruption for an hour during- the sitting of 
the circle. Wet, damp, and foggy weather is bad for the production 
of physical phenomena. 

2. Let the circle consist of four, five, or six individuals, about the 
same number of each sex. Sit round an uncovered wooden table, 
with all the palms of the hands in contact with its top surface. 
Whether the hands touch each other or not is usually of no import- 
ance. Any table will do, just large enough to conveniently accom- 
modate the sitters. The removal of a hand from the table for a few 
seconds does no harm, but when one of the sitters breaks the circle 
by leaving the table, it sometimes, but not always, very considerably 
delays the manifestations. 

3. Before the sitting begins, place some pointed lead-pencils and 
some sheets of clean writing paper on the table, to write down any 
communications that may be obtained. 

4. People who do not like each other should not sit in the same 
circle, for such a want of harmony tends to prevent manifestations, 
except with well-developed physical mediums ; it is not yet known 

13* 



298 



PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 



why. Belief or unbelief has no influence on the manifestations, but 
an acrid feeling against them is a weakening influence. 

5. Before the manifestations begin, it is well to engage in general 
conversation or in singing, and it is best that neither should be of a 
frivolous nature. A prayerful, earnest feeling among the members 
of the circle is likely to attract a higher and more pleasing class of 
spirits. 

6. The first symptom of the invisible power at work is often a feel- 
ing like a cool wind sweeping over the hands. The first manifesta- 
tions will probably be table tiltings or raps. 

7. When motions of the table or sounds are produced freely, to 
avoid confusion, let one person only speak, and talk to the table as to 
an intelligent being. K Let him tell the table that three tilts or raps 
mean u Yes," one means "No," and two means " Doubtful," and ask 
whether the arrangement is understood. If three signals be given in 
answer, then say, If I speak the letters of the alphabet slowly, will 

. you signal every time I come to a letter you want, and spell us out a 
message ? Should three signals be given, set to work on the plan 
proposed, and from this time an intelligent system of communication 
is established. 

8. Afterwards the question should be put, Are we sitting in the 
right order to get the best manifestations ? Probably some mem- 
bers of the circle will then be told to change seats with each other, 
and the signals will be afterwards strengthened. Next ask, Who is 
the medium ? When spirits come asserting themselves to be related 
or known to anybody present, well-chosen questions should be put to 
test the accuracy of the statements, as spirits out of the body have 
all the virtues and all the failings of spirits in the body. 



THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE LONDON 
DIALECTICAL SOCIETY ON SPIRITUALISM. 



Yesterday the long-expected report of the Committee 
of the Dialectical Society on Spiritualism was published 
by Messrs. Longmans, and it is a book which will live 
in history.* The Dialectical Society was founded early 
in the year 1867, under the presidency of Sir John 
Lubbock, Bart., M.P., for " the philosophical treatment 
of all questions, especially those which lie at the root of 
the differences which divide mankind," and, unlike the 
other societies, it resolved not to exclude from consider- 
ation political or religious subjects, or subjects opposed 
to popular prejudices. The founders of the Dialectical 
Society said in their prospectus: 

" The London Dialectical Society will have effected much good, if by 
its means persons are made to feel that to express a belief on a dis- 
puted question with regard to which they refuse to examine the evi- 
dence, is an act altogether unworthy of a rational being, and that the 
only method of arriving at truth is by submitting one's opinion to the 
test of unsparing and adverse criticism. Freedom of speech and 

* The entire report and all the comments here given are from the 
London (Eng.) Spiritualist, bearing date October 11th, 1871. As a 
matter of highly important history it is here embodied. 



300 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

thought are (not less than personal freedom) the natural birthright 
of all mankind. To refrain from uttering opinions because they are 
unpopular, betokens a certain amount of moral cowardice, engen- 
dered by long-continued persecution. To state fearlessly the truth, 
or what we believe to be the truth, even though it be held only by a 
few, is the act of all who consider the exercise of private judgment a 
right, and the extension of human knowledge a duty. But society 
generally has not reached such a stage of progress as to allow indi- 
viduals to give expression to their honest and deliberate convictions, 
without inflicting upon them penalties more or less severe. The effect 
of this is to deter men from expressing opinions which might be cor- 
rected if erroneous, or accepted if true. In the London Dialectical 
Society, however, not only will no person suffer obloquy, on account 
of any opinion which he may entertain or express, but he will be en- 
couraged to lay before his fellow-members the fullest exposition of 
his views. . . . Let lis be mindful of the fact that throughout the 
whole history of the world, the voice of authority has constantly op- 
posed new truths ; and with an earnest desire both to learn and teach, 
let us zealously follow the practice of dialectics, unaffected by the 
praises of some, undeterred by the denunciations of others, but con- 
scious of honesty and purity of motive, and desirous for the wisdom 
and happiness of man. " 

On the foregoing principles has the Dialectical So- 
ciety honestly investigated several unpopular subjects, 
and discovered some remarkable truths, not all of which 
have been published. At last a very big unpopular 
truth in the shape of Spiritualism came across their 
path — a very leviathan in comparison with the sprats 
which they had hitherto been netting— and they ap- 
pointed a Committee to investigate the subject. Spir- 
itualism raised the little society into public notice, be- 
cause it undertook a serious duty which other learned 



LONDON DIALECTICAL SOCIETY ON SPIRITUALISM. 301' 

societies have up to this time shirked ; the newspapers, 
and perhaps the Council of the Dialectical Society, 
were jubilant over the exposure which was certain to 
result. The Committee, composed of legal, medical, 
and professional men, strongly prejudiced at the outset 
against Spiritualism, investigated for two years, and 
then gave in a report strongly in favor of Spiritualism. 
It had been understood all aloug that this report was to 
be published, and those who were invited to give evi- 
dence before the Committee, were asked either to put 
it in writing or to revise the shorthand notes, in the 
former case imposing a heavy tax upon the time of 
professional men, like Mr. Varley, for instance, who 
have something more to do than to write for^idle pur- 
poses. 

So the report, when it was presented, was in favor of 
Spiritualism ; at this unexpected result the Dialectical 
Society took fright. The Council ran away, and re- 
fused to publish it, leaving its Committee in the lurch. 
On the 20th of July last, when the report was sub- 
mitted to the Council, the Council gave a vote of 
thanks to the Committee, and passed the following 
resolution : 

' ' That the request of the Committee that the report be printed un- 
der the authority of the Society, be not acceded to." 

In consequence of the above decision, the Committee 



302 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

unanimously determined to publish the report on their 
own responsibility, and it is now, accordingly, submitted 
to the public. 

THE MEMBERS OF THE DIALECTICAL COMMITTEE. 

The Committee was appointed on the 26th January, 
1869, as follows : 

"H. G. Atkinson, Esq., F.G.S.; G. Wheatley Bennett, Esq.; J. S. 
Bergheim, Esq., C.E. ; H. R. Fox Bourne, Esq.; Charles Bradlaugh, 
Esq.; G. Fenton Cameron, Esq., M.D.; John Chapman, Esq., M.D. ; 
Rev. C. Maurice Davies, D D.; Charles R. Drysdale, Esq., M.D.; D. 
H. Dyte, Esq.. M.R C.S.; Mrs, D. H. Dyte; James Edmunds, Esq., 
M.D.; Mrs. Edmunds; James Gannon, Esq.; Grattan Greary, Esq.; 
Robert Hannah, Esq., F.G.S. ; Jenner Gale Hillier, Esq.; Mrs. J. G. 
Hillier; Henry Jeffrey, Esq.; Albert Kisch, Esq., M.R. C.S.; Joseph 
Maurice, Esq.; Isaac L. Meyers, Esq.; B. M. Moss, Esq.; Robert 
Quelch, Esq.; C.E. ; Thomas Reed, Esq.; C. Russell Roberts, Esq., 
Ph. D. ; William Volckman, Esq. ; Horace S. Yeomans, Esq. 

' ' Professor Huxley and Mr. George Henry Lewes, to be invited to 
co-operate. Drs. Chapman and Drysdale and Mr. Fox Bourne de- 
clined to sit, and the following names were subsequently added to 
the Committee : 

"George Cary, Esq., B.A. ; Edward W. Cox, Esq., Serjeant-at- 
Law ; William B. Gower, Esq. ; H. D. Jencken, Esq. , Barrister-at- 
Law ; J. H. Levy, Esq. ; W. H. Swepston, Esq. , Solicitor ; Alfred R. 
Wallace, Esq., F.R.G.S. ; Josiah Webber, Esq." 

THE OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. 

The following is the official report of the Committee 
of the Dialectical Society on Spiritualism : — 

" To the Council of the London Dialectical Society : 
" Gentlemen, — The Committee appointed by you to investigate 



LONDON DIALECTICAL SOCIETY ON SPIRITUALISM. 303 

the phenomena alleged to be Spiritual Manifestations, report there- 
on as follows : 

'•Your Committee have held fifteen meetings, at which they re- 
ceived evidence from thirty-three persons who described phenomena, 
which, they stated, had occurred within their own personal experi- 
ence. 

1 • Your Committee have received written statements relating to 
the phenomena from thirty-one persons. 

' " Your Committee invited the attendance, and requested the co- 
operation and advice of scientific men who had publicly expressed 
opinions favorable or adverse to the genuineness of the phenomena. 

44 Your Committee also specially invited the attendance of persons 
who had publicly ascribed the phenomena to imposture or delusion. 

"Your Committee, however, while successful in procuring the evi- 
dence of believers in the phenomena, and in their supernatural origin, 
almost wholly failed to obtain evidence from those who attributed 
them to fraud or delusion. 

"As it appeared to your Committee to be of the greatest import- 
ance that they should investigate the phenomena in question, by per- 
sonal experiment and test, they resolved themselves into sub-c.om- 
mittees as the best means of doing so. 

ik Six sub-committees were formed. All of these have sent in re- 
ports, from which, it appears, that a large majority of the members 
of your Committee have become actual witnesses to several phases of 
the phenomena without the aid or presence of any professional me- 
dium, although the greater part of them commenced their investiga- 
tions in an avowedly sceptical spirit. 

''These reports, hereto subjoined, substantially corroborate each 
other, and would appear to establish the following propositions : 

"1. That sounds of a very varied character, apparently proceeding 
from articles of furniture, the floor and walls of the room — the vi- 
brations accompanying which sounds are often distinctly perceptible 
to the touch — occur, without being produced by muscular action or 
mechanical contrivance. 

" 2. That movements of heavy bodies take place without mechani- 
cal contrivance of any kind, or adequate exertion of muscular force 
by those present, and frequently without contact or connection with 
any person. 



304 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

"3. That these sounds and movements often occur at the time 
and in the manner asked for by persons present, and, by means of a 
simple code of signals, answer questions and spell out coherent com- 
munications. 

"4. That the answers and communications thus obtained are, for 
the most part, of a commonplace character ; but facts are sometimes 
correctly given which are only known to one of the persons present. 

' ' 5. That the circumstances under which the phenomena take 
place are variable, the most prominent fact being that the presence 
of certain persons seems necessary to their occurrence, and that of 
others generally adverse ; but this difference does not appear to de- 
pend upon any belief or disbelief concerning the phenomena. 

" G. That, nevertheless, the occurrence of the phenomena is not 
insured by the presence or absence of such persons respectively. 

" The oral and written evidence received by your Committee not 
only testifies to the occurrence of phenomena of the same nature as 
those witnessed by the sub-committees, but to others of a more 
varied and extraordinary character. 

" This evidence may be briefly summarized as follows: 

"1. Thirteen witnesses state that they have seen heavy bodies — 
in some instances men — rise slowly in the air and remain there for 
some time without visible or tangible support. 

' ' 2. Fourteen witnesses testify to having seen hands or figures, 
not appertaining to any human being, but life-like in appearance and 
mobility, which they have sometimes touched or even grasped, and 
which they are therefore convinced were not the result of imposture 
or illusion. 

"3. Five witnesses state that they have been touched by some 
invisible agency on various parts of the body, and often where re- 
quested, when the hands of all present were visible. 

u 4. Thirteen witnesses declare that they have heard musical 
pieces well played upon instruments not manipulated by any ascer- 
tainable agency. 

" 5. Five witnesses state that they have seen red-hot coals applied 
to the hands or heads of several persons without producing pain or 
scorching ; and three witnesses state that they have had the same 
test applied to themselves with the like immunity. 



LONDON DIALECTICAL SOCIETY ON SPIRITUALISM. 305 

" 6. Eight witnesses state that they have received detailed infor- 
mation through rappings, writings, and other ways, the accuracy of 
■which was unknown at the time to themselves or to any persons pres- 
ent, and which, on subsequent inquiry, was found to be correct. 

1 k 7. One witness declares that he has received a precise and 
detailed statement which, nevertheless, proved to be entirely errone- 
ous. 

11 8. Three witnesses state that they have been present when 
drawings, both in pencil and colors, were produced in so short a 
time, and under such conditions, as to render human agency impos- 
sible. 

"9. Six witnesses declare that they have received information of 
future events, and that in some cases the hour and minute have been 
accurately foretold days and weeks before. 

" In addition to the above, evidence has been given of trance-speak- 
ing, of healing, of automatic writing, of the introduction of flowers 
and fruits into closed rooms, of voices in the air, of visions in crystals 
and glasses, and of the elongation of the human body. 

' ' Many of the witnesses have given their views as to the sources of 
the phenomena. 

1 ' Some attribute them to the agency of disembodied human beings, 
some to Satanic influence, some to psychological causes, and others 
to imposture or delusion. 

" The literature of the subject has also received the attention of 
your Committee, and a list of works is appended for the assistance of 
those who may wish to pursue the subject further. 

' ' In presenting their report, your Committee, taking into consider- 
ation the high character and great intelligence of many of the wit- 
nesses to the more extraordinary facts, the extent to which their tes- 
timony is supported by the reports of the sub-committees, and the 
absence of any proof of imposture or delusion as regards a large por- 
tion of the phenomena ; and, further, having regard to the excep- 
tional character of the phenomena, the large number of persons in 
every grade of society and over the whole civilized world who are 
more or less influenced by a belief in their supernatural origin, and to 
the fact that no philosophical explanation of them has yet been arrived 
at, deem it incumbent upon them to state their conviction that the 



306 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

subject is worthy of more serious attention and careful investigation 
than it has hitherto received. 

u Your Committee recommend that this report and the report of 
the sub-committees, together with the evidence and correspondence 
appended, be printed and published." 

THE REPORTS OF THE EXPERIMENTAL SUB-COMMITTEES. 

The Committee collected information in two ways : 
firstly, by taking down the evidence of Spiritualists and 
of persons opposed to Spiritualism ; secondly, by appoint- 
ing sub-committees to observe the manifestations for 
themselves. The latter class of evidence is the most 
interesting, because it comes from men who were strongly 
opposed to the whole subject, just as Mr. Crookes was 
when one of the daily papers, some two years ago, asked 
him to explode the imposture for it, and publish the 
results — which he has done. 

The reports of the result of patient practical investi- 
gation for two years, are very interesting to all Spirit- 
ualists ; we quote one of them as a sample, and those 
who wish for further information as to the results of 
observation by the sub-committees, are referred to the 
exceedingly valuable book in which they are published. 
The following is the report of one of the Committees : 

" Since their appointment on the 16th of February, 1869, your Com- 
mittee have held forty meetings for the purpose of experiment and 
test. 

" All of these meetings were held at the private residences of mem- 



LONDON DIALECTICAL SOCIETY ON SPIKITUALISM. 307 

bers of the Committee purposely to preclude the possibility of pre- 
arranged mechanism or contrivance. 

" The furniture of the room was on every occasion its accustomed 
furniture. 

" The tables were in all cases heavy dining- tables, requiring a 
strong effort to move them. The smallest of them was 5ft. 9in. long 
by 4ft. wide. The largest was 9ft. 3in. long and 4^ft. wide, and of 
proportionate weight. 

" The rooms, the tables, and other furniture were repeatedly sub- 
jected to careful examination before, during, and after the experi- 
ments, proving that no concealed machinery, instrument, or other 
contrivance existed by means of which the sounds or movements 
could be caused. 

' ' The experiments were conducted in the light of gas above the 
table, except on the few occasions specially noted in the minutes. 

' ' On several occasions members of your Committee were seated 
under the table during the experiments. 

"Your Committee have studiously avoided the employment of 
professional or paid mediums. All were members of the Committee, 
persons of social position, of unimpeachable integrity, with no pecu- 
niary object, having nothing to gain by deception, and everything to 
lose by detection of imposture. 

" Your Committee have held some meetings without the presence 
of a medium (it being understood that throughout this report the 
word ' medium ' is used simply to designate an individual without 
whose presence the phenomena described either do not occur at all, 
or with greatly diminished force and frequency), purposely to try if 
they could produce, by any voluntary efforts, effects similar to those 
witnessed when a medium was present. By no endeavors were they 
enabled to produce anything at all resembling that which they had 
seen and heard in their ordinary experiments. 

"Every test that the combined intelligence of your Committee 
could devise has been tried with patience and perseverance. The 
experiments were conducted under a great variety of conditions, and 
ingenuity has been exerted in devising plans by which your Commit- 
tee might verify their observations and preclude the possibility of 
imposture, or of delusion. 



o08 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

' ' Your Committee have confined their report to facts witnessed by 
them in their collective capacity, which facts were palpable to the 
senses, and their reality capable of demonstrative proof. 

" Of the members of your sub-committee, about four-fifths entered 
upon the investigation to which they were appointed, wholly scepti- 
cal as, to the reality of the alleged phenomena, and firmly believing 
them to be the result either of imposture, or of delusion or of invol- 
untary muscular action. It was only irresistible evidence, under 
conditions that precluded the possibility of either of these solutions, 
and after trial and test many times repeated, that the most sceptical 
of them were slowly and reluctantly convinced that the phenomena 
exhibited in the course of their protracted inquiry were veritable 
facts. 

" The result of their long-continued and carefully-conducted ex- 
periments, with trial of every detective test they could devise, has 
been to establish conclusively — 

" First— That under certain bodily or mental conditions of one or 
more of the persons present, a force is exhibited sufficient to cause 
motion in heavy bodies, without the employment of any muscular 
force, without contact, and without material connection of any kind 
between such bodies and the body of any person present. 

" Second — That this force can make distinctly audible sounds ap- 
parently proceeding from solid bodies not in contact with, nor having 
any visible or material connection with, the body of any person pres- 
ent, and which sounds are proved to proceed from them by the vibra- 
tions which are distinctly felt when those bodies are touched. 

u Third — That this force is frequently directed by some intelli- 
gence. 

"At thirty -four out of the forty meetings of your Committee some 
of these phenomena occurred. 

' ' A description of one experiment, and the manner of conducting 
it, will best show the care and caution with which your Committee 
have pursued their investigations. 

" So long as there was contact, or even the possibility of contact, 
by a finger, by the feet, or even by the clothes, of any person in the 
room, with the substance moved or sounded, there could be no per- 
fect assurance that the motions and sounds were not produced by the 
person so in contact with the thing operated upon. 



LONDON DIALECTICAL SOCIETY ON SPIRITUALISM. 309 

" The following experiment was therefore tried : 

" After a committee of eleven persons had been sitting round the 
dining-table above described for forty minutes, and various motions 
and sounds had occurred, the chairs were turned with their backs to 
the table, at about nine inches from it. All present then knelt upon 
their chairs, placing their arms upon the backs of their chairs. In 
this position, the feet were of course turned away from the table, 
and by no possibility could be placed under it or touch the floor. The 
hands were extended over the table at about four inches from the 
surface. 

' ' In this position, contact with any part of the table was physi- 
cally impossible. 

'* In less than a minute the table, untouched, moved four times; 
at first about Jive inches to one side, then about twelve inches to the 
opposite side, then about four inches, and that about six inches. 

' ' The hands were next placed on the backs of the chairs and about 
a foot from the table. In this position, the table again moved four 
times, over spaces varying from four to six inches. Then all the 
chairs were removed twelve inches from the table. All knelt as be- 
fore. Each person folded his hands behind his back, his body being 
about eighteen inches from the table, and having the back of the 
chair between himself and the table. In this position the table again 
moved four times, in like manner as before. In the course of this 
conclusive experiment, and in less than half an hour, the table 
moved, without contact or possibility of contact with any person 
present, twelve times, the movements being in different directions, 
and some according to the request of different persons present. 

" The table was then*carefully examined, turned upside down, and 
taken to pieces, but nothing was discovered. The experiment was 
conducted throughout in the full light of gas above the table. 

" Altogether, your Committee have witnessed upwards of fifty sim- 
ilar motions without contact on eight different evenings, in the 
houses of different members of your Committee, and with the appli- 
cation of the most careful tests their collective intelligence could de- 
vise. 

"In all of these experiments upon motion without contact, the 
utmost care was taken to preclude the possibility of mechanical or 



310 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

other contrivance. But this was also negatived by the fact that these 
movements were in various directions, now to one side, then to the 
other ; now up the room, now down the room—motions that would 
have required the cooperation of many hands or feet, which, from 
the great size and weight of the table, could not have been so used 
without the visible exercise of muscular force. Every hand and foot 
was plainly to be seen, and could not have been moved without in- 
stant detection. 

" Nor was it a possible delusion. The motions were from one 
place to another place in the room, and were witnessed simultane- 
ously by all present. It was a matter of measurement, and not of 
opinion or of fancy. 

" And it occurred so often, under so many and various conditions, 
with such safeguards against error or deception, and with such inva- 
riable results, as to satisfy the members of your Committee by whom 
the experiment was tried, wholly sceptical as most of them were 
when they entered upon the investigation, that there is a force- capable 
of moving heavy bodies witltout material contact, and ichich force is in 
some unknown manner dependent upon the presence of human beings. 

" There appears to your Committee to be no ground for the popu- 
lar belief that the presence of sceptics interferes in any manner with 
the production or action of the for^e. 

"Tour Committee has not, in its collective character, obtained any 
evidence as to the nature and source of this force, but simply as to 
tJiefact of its existence or non-existence. 

" In conclusion, your Committee express their unanimous opinion 
that the one important physical fact whose existence has been proved 
to them, that motion may be produced in solid bodies without material 
contact, by some hitherto unrecognized force operating within an unde- 
fined distance from the human organization, and beyond the range of 
muscular action, should be subjected to further scientific examination 
and tests, with a view to ascertain its true sources, nature, and 
power. 

"The notes of the experiments made at each meeting, and their 
results, are appended to this report." 



LONDON DIALECTICAL SOCIETY ON SPIRITUALISM. 311 



THE PAPER BY DR. EDMUNDS. 

Mr, James Edmunds, M.D., is one of tbe members 
of the Committee who objects to its official report, so he 
has written a long paper, which is published along with 
the report, setting forth his opinion that Spiritualism 
is a mixture of imposture and delusion. 

. A few preliminary remarks about Dr. Edmunds may 
help to give clear ideas on the subject. He is a gentle- 
man who, whenever he has had the chance, has seized 
opportunities to thrust himself into public notice by con- 
necting himself with subjects agitating the public mind. 
Last August, when the hot weather caused the usual 
panic about the possible approach of Asiatic cholera, 
great notoriety was to be won by the medical practi- 
tioner who found the first cholera case in London, and Dr. 
Edmunds proved to be the " coming man." The Times 
of August 15th contained the following letter : 

To the Editor of the Times. 

11 Sir.— At half -past two this morning I was called up to a typi- 
cal case of Asiatic cholera in Charlotte street, Portland place. As 
your columns will be the best medium for warning all the sanitary 
officials of the metropolis, I have posted down to write these few lines 
in your office, and trust that they may get in before you go to press. 

" James Edmunds, M.D. 

" 4 Fitzroy square, W., August 15th, 3.30 a.m." 

Dr. Edmunds attracted the notice of Parliament by 






312 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

means of tins letter. On the evening of the 15th 
August, Mr. Forster told the House of Commons that 
Dr. Buckland had been to see the patient, and there was 
reason to suppose that it was not a ease of cholera. 
Mr. Forster thought that if Dr. Edmunds had waited a 
little longer he would not have thought it necessary to 
write a letter " causing needless alarm." The House 
greeted the last sentiment with cries of " Hear, hear." 

When the doings of the St. Pancras Guardians came 
before the public a year or two ago, Dr. Edmunds took 
up the cudgels on one side, and gained notoriety. 
When School Boards were the order of the day, he came 
before the public as a candidate, and — was rejected. 

When the Dialectical Committee, in the face of great 
opposition and unlimited newspaper abuse, resolved to 
be honest, and tell the truth about spiritual phenomena, 
a fine opportunity presented itself to Dr. Edmunds, and 
he will gain immense popularity by taking the popular 
side of an unpopular subject. Still, there were difficul- 
ties in his path. For instance, in May, 1868, he was 
appointed by a public audience, as one of a Committee 
of two to go on the platform and test the truth of the 
Davenport manifestations. The Davenports not only 
accepted him on the platform, but had him tied up in 
their cabinet with them, that he might witness whether 
they did anything while the manifestations were going 



LONDON DIALECTICAL SOCIETY ON SPIRITUALISM. 313 

on. The musical instruments flew about as usual, coats 
were whisked on and off, one of them being Dr. Ed- 
munds' coat, and when the manifestations were over, 
Dr. Edmunds publicly told the listeners that what had 
taken place was inexplicable. 

Dr. Edmunds backs out of this dilemma in the report 
before us by intimating that he afterwards changed his 
mind about the Davenports. 

Mrs. Dr. Edmunds is a lady in every sense of the 
word, and a physical medium. Some of the manifesta- 
tions witnessed by the Dialectical Committee occurred 
through the mediumship of Mrs. Edmunds, who many 
times sat in circle with them. This extremely interest- 
ing fact Dr. Edmunds says nothing about in his essay ; 
it is not an easy one to face. 

Three or four years ago Dr. Edmunds was at a seance 
with Mrs. Guppy. He styles the manifestations, which 
were really weak and poor on that evening, as " trumpery 
tricks," and says that a spirit drawing was found in a 
portfolio of paper placed on the table before the com- 
pany, at the commencement of the seance, and so folded 
that the drawing would not be likely to be noticed. 
Mr. Guppy states that any unbiassed person must see that 
it is u perfectly evident that persons wishing to deceive, 
and having darkness and unlimited time at their com- 
mand, would never commit such a blunder as to put a 
14 



314 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIKITUAL LNTEECOTJESE. 

drawing, however folded, oh the table, open to the in- 
spection of all the company." 

It is no easy thing to get a seance with Mrs. Guppy, 
as so many wish to see her manifestations, and the mem- 
bers of her circles are usually very high-class people. 
Mr. Guppy says that the gentleman for whom the seance 
had been arranged (the Hon. Mr. -, who has consid- 
erable influence in Parliament), " permitted " Dr. Ed- 
munds to come with him to the house. Dr. Edmunds, 
in his paper, denies this, and says that he had a written 
invitation. We have since inquired into the facts of 
Mrs. Gnppy, who tells us that Mrs. Dr. Edmunds called 
on her, and asked for an invitation, which she refused, 
and added that the seance was a private o*ne for Mr. 
. Dr. Edmunds accordingly wrote to this gentle- 
man, and asked for an invitation. He obtained it for 
himself, but brought Mrs. Edmunds with him without 
any invitation at all. 

Mr. Guppy says that the gentleman who permitted 
the Doctor to accompany him to the seance distinctly 
avers that no such event occurred as that narrated by 
Dr. Edmunds about the finding of the drawing. 

Dr. Edmunds says that Mrs. Mary Marshall the 
younger imposed on the Committee at a seance held be- 
fore them in a bright light with a great number of per- 
sons present, including the reporter of the Daily Tele- 



LONDON DIALECTICAL SOCIETY ON SPIRITUALISM. 315 

graph, the said reporter being one who knew nothing 
about Spiritualism and an unbiassed witness. Dr. Ed- 
munds says Mrs. Marshall made raps with her feet. 
Haps came from a folding door in full view of those 
present, while nobody was near it. The proceedings 
were truthfully reported in full next day in the Daily 
Telegraph, without a word about the detection of any 
imposture. Dr. Edmunds prints that Mr. Coleman had 
previously informed the Committee that if they had 
Mrs. Marshall, " a table would go up to the ceiling." 
Here is what Mr. Coleman says : 

. To the Editor of the Spiritualist. 

Sir, — I have just heard that in the forthcoming report of the Dia-" 
lectical Society on Spiritualism, Dr. Edmunds, the chairman of the 
Committee of Investigation, has made the following statement : " Mr. 
Coleman assured us (the Committee) that if we had Mrs. Marshall we 
should see a table go bodily up to the ceiling." 

At a meeting of the Society Dr. Edmunds, during a discussion, 
made a similar statement when I happened, without his knowing it, 
to be present. I at once told him it was an entire misapprehension 
on his part. I could not, and never had made such a proposition. 
Dr. Edmunds looked round for support from some one of the many 
members of the Committee who were present, and not finding any, 
he eagerly and confidently appealed to Mr. Bennett, the Secretary, 
who entered the room at that moment. Tbat gentleman replied, 
" No, I have no recollection of such an assurance being given." 

I added, " I was glad to find Dr. Edmunds was not supported in 
his erroneous impression, and as the statement was absolutely un- 
founded, I hoped he would never repeat it." Under such circum- 
stances, that he should now put the same statement upon record 
in a formal way is, to say the least, extremely discreditable to Dr. 
Edmunds. B. Coleman. 

Upper Norwood, Oct. 11. 



316 PHILOSOPHY OP SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

Of course everybody knows that nobody can tell what 
will take place at a seance, and it is utterly impossible 
that an experienced Spiritualist like Mr. Coleman could 
have made the alleged promise. 

Mr. Sergeant Cox contributes a memoir, in the course 
of which he states that Dr. Edmunds was not an acting- 
member of the sub-committee for experimental investi- 
gation ; he was never present at the entire of any of its 
forty meetings, and he did not witness even one of the 
crucial tests which the sub- committee applied to the 
phenomena. 



FACTS FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF SCEPTICS IN 

SPIRITUALISM. 



The following summary is quoted from the Spiritu- 
alist, for the purpose of bringing before the reader 
some idea of the progress made since the first appear- 
ance of this volume : * 

The phenomena seen at spiritual circles are so ex- 
traordinary, and so unlike those coming within the 
ordinary range of human experience, that it is quite 
right not to accept them on the testimony of others. 
Each individual should witness and test them personally, 
and believe nothing until the absolute knowledge is 
gained that denial is impossible. 

EVIDENCE THAT SPERITUALISM DESERVES INVESTIGATION". 

The testimony of reliable and respectable witnesses 
that the phenomena of Spiritualism are actual facts, 

* The author's sequel to this volume, entitled " Sjririt Mysteries 
Explained" at present known as " Present Age and Inner IAfe" 
should be perused by the reader, inasmuch as it is full, complete, and 
exhaustive of all the facts and phases of modern and ancient Spirit- 
ualism. 



318 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

and not imposture or delusion, has of late years so ac- 
cumulated as to possess very great weight. In the case 
of Lyon v. Home, Mr. Robert Chambers, Mr. C. F. 
Yarley, Dr. Gully, Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, and others, 
all made affidavits strongly in favor of Mr. Home. The 
following was a portion of the affidavit of Mr. C. F. 
Yarley, C.E., F.E.G.S., M.R.L : 

" I have been a student of electricity, chemistry, and natural 
philosophy for twenty-six years, and a telegraphic engineer by pro- 
fession for twenty-one years, and I am the consulting electrician of 
the Atlantic Telegraph Company, and of the Electric and International 
Company. 

''About eight years ago, I called on Mr. Home, the defendant in 
this suit, and stated that I had not yet witnessed any of the physical 
phenomena, but that I was a scientific man and wished to investigate 
them carefully. 

" He immediately gave me every facility for the purpose, and de- 
sired me to satisfy myself in every possible way, and I have been 
with him on divers occasions when the phenomena have occurred. I 
have examined and tested them with him and with others, under 
conditions of my own choice, under a bright light, and have made the 
most jealous and searching scrutiny. I have been, since then, for 
seven months in America, where the subject attracts great attention 
and study, and where it is cultivated by some of the ablest men, and 
having experimented with and compared the forces with electricity 
and magnetism, and after having applied mechanical and mental 
tests, I entertain no doubt whatever that the manifestations which I 
have myself examined were not due to the operations of any of the 
recognized physical laws of nature, and that there has been present 
on the occasions above mentioned some intelligence other than that 
of the medium and observers." 

It also came out in the evidence given at the trial, 



FACTS FOE SCEPTICS IN SPIRITUALISM. 319 

that Mr. Ilome had been the invited and unpaid guest 
of the Emperor and the Empress of the French, the 
Emperor, Empress, and the late Empress Dowager of 
.Russia, the Grand Duke Constautine, the King of 
Prussia, the late King of Bavaria, the late King of 
Wurtemberg, and the Queen of Holland. Mr. Home 
says that in all his life he has never taken a farthing 
of pay for his seances. In March, 1869, the Spiritual 
Magazine gave the names of the following gentlemen 
as those who have long been investigating the subject : 

" Cromwell F. Varley, Esq., Fleetwood-house, Beckenham; Alfred 
B,. Wallace, Esq. , Holly -house, Barking ; Professor De Morgan, 91 
"Adelaide-road, rf. W. ; Captain Drayson, R. A. , Woolwich ; Dr. J. M. 
Gully, The Priory, Great Malvern ; Dr. J. J. G. Wilkinson, 4 St. 
John's-wood-villas, N.W. ; Dr. Dixon, 8 Great Onnond-street, W.C. ; 
S. C. Hall, Esq., 15 Ashley-place, Victoria-street, " S.W. ; Newton 
Crosland, Esq.; William Howitt, Esq.,- The Orchard, Hare-green, 
Esher, Surrey; Robert Chambers, Esq., St. Andrew's, Edinburgh; 
H. D. 'Jencken, Esq., Kilmorey-house, Norwood; J. G. Crawford, 
Esq., 52 Gloucester-crescent, N.W. ; W. M. Wilkinson, Esq., Oak- 
field, Kilburn ; Lord Adare, 5 Buckingham-gate ; The Master of 
Lindsay, Grosvenor-square." 

Mrs. De Morgan has written a book, entitled From 
Matter to Spirit (Longmans), where she gives many 
interesting particulars, the result of ten years' experi- 
ence in Spiritualism. Professor De Morgan, President 
of the Mathematical Society of London, in his preface 
to the book, says : 

" I am perfectly convinced that I have both seen and heard, in a 



320 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

manner which should make unbelief impossible, things called spirit- 
ual, which cannot be taken by a rational being to be capable of ex- 
planation by imposture, coincidence, or mistake. So far I feel the 
ground firm under me. " 

Dr. Hooker, in his opening address, as President of 
the British Association at Norwich in 1868, spoke very 
highly of the scientific attainments of Mr. Alfred R. 
Wallace, F.L.S. Mr. Wallace is an avowed Spiritual- 
ist. Professor Hare, of Philadelphia, the inventor of 
the Hare's Galvanic Battery, once refused to witness 
spiritual phenomena, alleging that Faraday's " uncon- 
scious muscular action " theory explained all the facts. 
A friend wrote to him detailing things he had seen 
which were inexplicable by that theory. Hare, at once, 
like a sensible man, went to see for himself. The re- 
sult was that he came into communication with some of 
his own departed relatives. He then made mechanical 
telegraphic machines, which were intelligently worked 
by spirits while the apparatus was screened from the 
sight of the medium, and he wrote a book recording all 
these facts. That book is now in the British Museum 
Library. Judge Edmonds, of New York, is another 
very eminent American Spiritualist, • who has also 
written interesting books on the subject. Recently, in 
England, Viscount Adare has written a book bearing 
testimony to the truth of Spiritualism, and it has a 
preface by Lord Dunraven. This book is printed for 



FACTS FOE SCEPTICS IN SPIRITUALISM. 321 

private circulation only, which is an error in judgment. 
Valuable evidence in favor of Spiritualism is given by 
John Wesley and his family ; for spirit-rapping and 
movements of wooden materials by invisible agency 
occurred in their own house. Documentary evidence 
of what they witnessed was drawn up and signed on the 
spot, and is published in Southey's Life of Wesley. 

Mr. W. Crookes, F.H.S., editor of the Chemical 
JVews, is now investigating Spiritualism, and he has 
published an article in the Quarterly Journal of Sci- 
ence, stating that its phenomena are real, and not delu- 
sion or imposture, though he does not know as yet 
whether they are produced by disembodied spirits. 
The following letter, which he wrote to Mr. Yarley, was 
published in the Spiritualist of July 15th, 1870 : 

" 20 MORNINGTON-ROAD, LONDON, N.W. 

"July 13th, 1870. 

"Dear Mr. Varley, — I was very pleased to receive your letter 
of the 9th inst. , in which you discuss some points alluded to in my 
paper on ' Spiritualism viewed by the Light of Modern Science.' 

4 ' You have been working at the subject for more years than I have 
months, and knowing, as you do, the enormous difficulties in the way 
of accurate investigation — difficulties for the most part interposed by 
Spiritualists themselves — you will not be surprised to find that I only 
feel the ground firm under me for a very short distance along the 
road which you have travelled so far. 

' ' I was deeply interested in reading of your experiments, the more 
so as I have been working in a similar direction myself, but as yet 
with scarcely a tangible result. 
14* 



322 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

" You notice that I admit freely and fully the physical phenomena. 
Let this openness be a guarantee that I shall not hesitate for a moment 
in recording-, with equal fearlessness for the consequences, whatever 
convictions my investigation leads me to — whether it points to a 
mere physical force, or makes me, as you predict, a convert to the 
spiritual, hypothesis — but I must let my convictions come in my own 
way, and if I hold somewhat stubbornly to the laws of conservation 
of force and impenetrability of matter, it should not be considered as 
a crime on my part, but rather as a peculiarity in my scientific educa- 
tion. 

" I have already had many letters, both from Spiritualists and 
from leading men of science, saying that they are glad I have taken 
up the subject, and urging me to continue the investigation. In fact, 
I have been agreeably surprised to find encouragement from so many 
scientific men, as well as sympathy from the good friends I possess 
amongst the Spiritualists. 

' ' Believe me, my dear sirj very truly yours, 

"William Ckookes." 

« 

A work entitled The Booh of Nature, by C. O. 
Groom Napier, F.C.S. (London, John Camden Hotten, 
1870), has a preface by the late Lord Brougham, in 
which that eminent statesman says : 

" There is but one question I would ask the author, is the Spirit- 
ualism of this work foreign to our materialistic, manufacturing age ? 
— No ; for amidst the varieties of mind which divers circumstances 
produce, are found those who cultivate man's highest faculties ; — to 
these the author addresses himself. But even in the most cloudless 
skies of scepticism I see a rain-cloud, if it be no bigger than a man's 
hand ; it is Modern Spiritualism. " 

Signor G. Damiani, a Sicilian gentleman living at 
Clinton, has written a pamphlet, still in print, in which 
he severely censures Professor Tyndall, Mr. G. H. 



FACTS FOE SCEPTICS IN SPIRITUALISM. 323 

Lewes, and others like them, for refusing to investigate 
the subject. He further offers a reward of 1,000 guineas 
to any respectable, scientific or educated men, who will 
investigate the subject and prove it to be an imposture. 
The following are his words : 

U I now offer you two challenges. 

" First, I challenge you, or either of you, or any of the public who, 
like you, disbelieve in the genuine character of spiritualistic phe- 
nomena, to deposit in the hands of any well-known London banker, 
whom you or they may name, the sum of five hundred guineas ; and 
I pledge myself to immediately deposit in the same bank a like 
amount, — the ownership of such sum of one thousand guineas to de- 
pend upon my proving by evidence sufficient to establish any fact in 
history or in a criminal or civil court of justice, — 

' ' First — That intelligent communications and answers to questions 
put, proceed from dead and inert matter in a manner inexplicable 
by any generally recognized law of nature. 

"Secondly — That dead and inert matter does move without the 
aid of any mechanical or known chemical agency, and in defiance of 
all the admitted laws of gravitation. 

' ' Thirdly — The voices appertaining to no one in the flesh are 
heard to speak and hold rational converse with men. 

" A jury of twenty-four gentlemen, twelve to be chosen by each 
party (such jury to consist exclusively of members of the learned 
professions and literary men), to decide whether or not the facts 
contained in the above propositions are conclusively proved per testes 
— i.e., by witnesses of established character. A majority of the 
twenty-four to decide. If the verdict be that these facts have not 
been established, the thousand guineas are to belong to the party ac- 
cepting this challenge ; if the verdict be that these facts are estab- 
lished, the thousand guineas to be mine. 

" Secondly — Immediately after the above wager being decided, 
either way, I offer a like challenge of five hundred guineas (to be met 
on the other side in like manner as above) — the ownership of the 



324 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

second sum of one thousand guineas to depend upon the establish- 
ment of the facts contained in the propositions already given by ex- 
penmen ts conducted in the actual presence of the twenty-four gentle- 
men who have decided the previous wager ; the verdict of the 
majority to decide in this case likewise. 

" In- either case, the seances are to be conducted in any public or 
private building which the jury may select, and which may be avail- 
able- for the purpose. 

^ " The result of these challenges (if accepted and decided) to be 
advertised by the victorious party, at the expense of the defeated 
party, in all the London daily papers. 

' ' I hope this is plain English. 

' ' Awaiting a reply to this letter, and to the challenge with which it 
concludes, I am, gentlemen ; your obedient servant, 

"Clinton, Oct. 1, 1868. G. Damiani. 

"P. S. — Letters addressed ' Sigr. Damiani, care of Manager of 
West of England and South Wales District Bank, Corn-street, 
Bristol,' will always reach the writer." 

In addition to the above evidence, there is the testi- 
mony of numbers that the modern spiritual manifesta- 
tions are realities. Mr. Hep worth Dixon, in his New 
America, estimates the number of spiritualists in the 
United States at rather less than three millions, and 
this is about the lowest estimate that anybody - has 
made. There are no accurate statistics, and different 
authorities vary in their estimates from three to eleven 
millions. 



EOTE TO THE EEADER. 



The following Discourses, delivered by the Author, 
in the City of New York, in 1863, are added to this 
volume, because the facts and principles discussed in 
them are deemed legitimate deductions from the laws 
and ideas expounded in foregoing pages. The prac- 
tical bearing of the sublime truths of the Harmonial 
Philosophy may not be seen by the reader without 
reflection upon the Discourses which supplement the 
chapters already given. 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES 



" Many a foe is a friend in disguise ; 
Many a trouble a blessing most true." 

I have for years observed that the earth is full of 
downcast, melancholy persons, or of indifferent, stoical, 
lukewarm, shipwrecked characters — both the logical 
consequences of this over-spun popular but dogmatic 
theology, which is the plague of the world in general 
and the private sorrow of the millions of Americans in 
particular. Atheism is a beautiful belief, honest and 
soul-saving, compared with that desperate, godless, devil- 
full theology, which gives such splendor to the physical 
churches and such despair to the congregations of 
believing millions who support them. Mankind must 
obtain a new conception of the world in order to drive 
out this theological disease, which has been communi- 
cated to almost every sensitive, religious, spiritual, and 
poetic mind. It has sickened and blighted every soul 
that has unfortunately come under the sable wings of 
this dismal, desperate dream of the Oriental world.' 
Hebrew mythology is the basis of the theology of 
America this very hour. Only where there happens to 
be a meeting Quakers, of Unitarians or Universalists, 



328 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

of Spiritual Reformers or of Progressive Friends- 
only in such places is there any living protest to tlu 
prevalence of the abominable miasma which has gone 
abroad like the plagues of Egypt, filtering itself 
through all human institutions, not even excepting 
science, literature, and the arts. 

Now I find myself called upon to speak in emphatic 
words against the desperate, dismal disease-promoting, 
despair-propagating tendency of Hebrew mythology, 
which is the accredited theology and petted religion of 
Christendom. And it seems to me that, if there be 
vouchsafed enough light and strength at this time, we 
may do something towards augmenting the force of this 
protest by considering the question of "Defeats and 
Victories." 

There are two propositions which stand before my 
mind as incontrovertible, and as necessary to a distinct 
and full comprehension of the subject: 

First: That forms, vehicles, mediums, organiza- 
tions, institutions, equipments, agents, attorneys, are 
transient, while that which they convey is permanent 
and eternal — and, therefore, that even what- are culied 
"Accidents," are but the conductors or viaducts of 
laws that are just as full of the wisdom of Deity as the 
most delicious blessings that ever hugged your heart. 

Second: That all great immutable scientific princi- 
ples, and the eternal spiritual truths, have been con- 
veyed to mankind by means of blood, fires, dungeons, 
racks, gibbets, guillotines, governments, revolutions, 
convulsions, spasms, fits, earthquakes, and hysterics. 

These two propositions stand before my mind with 
as much distinctness and significance as does any per- 
son's countenance in this room. To recognize the 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 329 

Divinity in the accident, to see Good in dire disaster, 
to be strong enough to overcome evil in your oppressive 
misfortunes, to be pure enough to conquer the vice that 
is within you, or just touching you, is to give evidence 
of your complete and practical recognition of that sub- 
lime truth in the first proposition which is essential to 
every person's success and happiness in society, in busi- 
ness, in death, in resurrection. The most beautiful 
success is the most desperate disaster to him who is not 
wise enough to accept God as much in cloud as in sun- 
shine. 

Now, I am looking at and speaking to the world 
to-day from these propositions and principles. The 
whole universe appears to me to be regulated by a sys- 
tem of immutable, divine, benign, heavenly principles, 
which ooze perpetually forth and declare themselves 
even through our direst defeats, through our misfor- 
tunes, our failings and faults, and through those vari- 
ous and numerous accidents which occur in the history 
of human experience. 

Rightly looked at, Adam fell up stairs! (I am 
speaking now of the accepted story in Hebrew 
mythology with reference to the first human defeat — 
perhaps the best, most full of wisdom, most searching 
in its spiritual lessons.) This Hebrew myth, at basis a 
beautiful truth, teaches that Adam fell upward and on- 
ward — out of his ephemeral, butterfly, useless exist- 
ence, into manly health and laborious progression. He 
was born into luxury; this was the primal cause of his 
first defeat. He was physically and spiritually success- 
ful from the beginning ; that caused his downfall and 
expulsion. Born from the skies, inheriting an incalcu- 



330 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

lable fortune — never having earned a penny of it, not 
having acquired an item of the powers and troths 
which were slumbering in his possession — consequently 
he Lad no appreciation of either, and like all ot 
supeifkial riches and unmerited success, his advantages 
took- unto themselves wings and fled, dropping him in 
one of the open fields which were longing for a Man ! 
He met multiform obstacles on every side; but they 
were his best friends. If the first man Adam had early 
met a little hill of gold, not more than six inches high 
and ten inches in diameter, I fear he would never have 
successfully surmounted it. Undoubtedly he had suffi- 
cient of the 4i Yankee " in him to have influenced his 
mind to bow to « ; the golden image and worship it.' 5 But 
instead, he met only thistles, thorns, tempests, hurri- 
canes, earthquakes and fits: but they sternly and hon- 
estly befriended him. 

Do you not pity those feeble forest trees that must 
grow where the winds never blow with tempestuous 
fury ? You never find a great, beautiful oak, never 
a grand, well-developed pine, never thrifty fruit- 
trees, nor a great variety of wild flowers, where the 
winds are not permitted to work with great energy. 
Instead, you find swamps of stagnation and cesspools 
pervaded with deadly miasma ; also you find subterra- 
nean beasts there — repulsive creatures, unfit to live 
above ground, crawling and wriggling in the undis- 
turbed sinks of nastiness. 

Again, do you not pity a Brother man who is so well 
fed in body that he has grown exceedingly lean and 
mean in his spirit? General Banks (who now occu- 
pies a very prominent office, probably standing on the 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 331 

threshold of the most important movement about to 
connect the East inseparably with the great States and 
Territories west of the Mississippi,) graduated from one 
of New England's cotton-mills, and not from some high 
temple of learning, not from the fostering caresses and 
enfeebling attentions of very rich parents. No! 
Master-men are the productions of those energetic 
principles in Nature which produce and regulate all 
accidents ; in the midst of apparent confusion develop- 
ing the most orderly ends and guiding events to perfect 
purposes. 

I accept the doctrine that man is the ultimate image 
of " a divine plan," and that he is destined to be sym- 
metrically developed in body and caused to ripen in 
spirit. These ends are accomplished by means of out- 
ward agents and spiritual influences — by mistakes and 
personal faults — and not altogether by means of riches 
and idleness, worldly success and bodily happiness. I 
do not know of a single remarkable instance where a 
man, made suddenly rich or popular, continues com- 
mitted to the noble truths and large sympathies which 
distinguished him before his great success. But I do 
know a man who was very poor from his birth, but 
who became gradually rich and victorious in the midst 
of disasters and misfortunes. He never lost his interest 
in the struggling poor of the world, but gave, and still 
gives, wisely of both wisdom and wealth. 

The English Commissioner of Revenue near a hun- 
dred years ago undertook to gather exorbitant taxes 
from the American people. He was obliged to depart 
without the tax-money, and he sought his personal 
safety out of Boston. The people would not submit to 



332 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

tyranny that came over the free ocean. The tea was 
thrown over in the harbor. Americans would no 
longer be willing slaves to the requisitions and imposi- 
tions of their trans-Atlantic masters. What was the 
result? All history of this country is resplendently 
begemmed with the consequences. 1776 is referred to 
in all the school-books, and by all loyal persons, both 
in song and in story, as the commencement of " an 
era" of Freedom in the political and religious history 
of the American. England's great defeat was justice 
and success to her. It drove her snugly home, con- 
centrated her upon the properties of her own kingdom 
and commerce, and she has ever since been nationally 
prosperous and sell-possessed. But when she arro- 
gantly came over here,. dressed in red-coat?, marching 
to rich and costly music, she found that victory was 
destined to be on the side of her opponents. 

But this same victory of ours brought us a. miirhtv 
defeat. We earned our "independence," but found, 
alas! that we were masters of England not only, but 
also of millions of slaves. And that sad success was 
the germ of our present full-orbed defeats. As a nation 
we have gone on with this terrible success until it has 
put an extinguisher upon the effulgent light of our 
Union. Almost are wc gone nationally down into the 
martyr's sepulcher! Almost are hearth-stone enemies 
ready to roll a great stone against its mouth ! But 
America dead and in the martyr's tomb, with the stone 
of adversitv rolled against its mouth, is more might v 
and more triumphant than when tea went overboard in 
Boston. 

As a nation we must be forced into court and arbi- 



DEFExiTS AND VICTORIES. 333 

trarily condemned. The cross of sorrow must be put 
on the Northern shoulder, and the whole country must 
be led up to the summit of Calvary ! All are now slowly 
going thither. We shall be nailed to the cross, and 
two thieves will be executed with us. (There will be 
no difficulty in finding a couple.) Then we shall be 
taken down, and the countries of Europe about the 
foot of our cross will say : " We told you so — we 
expected it. We have argued it and written it for the 
last half century, that such a Republic as yours, such a 
looselv constituted democracv, could not and would not 
long exist." Then w r e shall be carried away, placed in 
the earth — only for a day ! Then will angel-princi- 
ples roll away this vast political obstruction, which 
keeps the people in the darkness of Hades and the 
misery of Gehenna. Behold we shall come forth ! And 
then the nations of the world, like the old officers of 
Rome, will be struck with blindness and paralysis. 
America will come forth — clad in white — purified, 
redeemed, transformed, free ! Our greatest national 
success — which gave us the power to overthrow the 
mastery of England — gave us also mastery over mil- 
lions of xVfricans. That success is to-day teaching us 
an expensive and desperate lesson, and we are slow in 
learning it. 

God, the greatest central good in the Universe, is 
giving us our best development and our highest victo- 
ries through disappointments, military defeats, and 
political adversities. Minds, not perceiving this truth, 
are cast down. They walk sadly in the vale of tears. 
They live daily in bondage to a fearful, soul-sickening 
sorrow. Oh, I pity those sightless editors of innu- 



334 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

merable papers — those atheistic men who move and 
float along in and with the rough world "just as they 
find it" — minds that see nothing higher and leel nothing 
better than the hum-drum of diurnal events. I do not 
wonder that they oppose and decry the Government, 
and set themselves against the administration of the 
Government. All the atheistic criticisms of our coun- 
trymen are so many moral stumbling-blocks in the 
pathway toward perdition. Banking men contemplate 
the demolition of their capital. Churches and colleges, 
and the institutions of common education, are wrapped 
up with the nation's commercial machinery. The 
important men, who support these institutions, are not 
lifted by their faith in Christianity high enough above 
circumstances to see that America is destined to go 
down through the Gulf Stream, then put out into the 
cold water, and at last outsail all the storms of capes 
and gulfs, and finally reach the clear open sea of 
boundless liberty. They do not believe in God, and 
they are accordingly cast down. And yet they go to 
their churches, they hear beautiful music, utter formal 
prayers, listen to expensive orthodox sermons that 
are filled with grammar and rhetoric, and with very 
.beautiful allusions to the Savior and his exemplary 
life; but when they go home from their carp3ted 
churches, they are the same cast-down, hopeless, athe- 
istical persons they were before they assembled for 
worship. A hopeful, buoyant, and honorable man or 
woman is so in spite of his or her religious creed. 

Look at mankind's defeats and successes in Science. 
We have a beautiful science of anatomy — a knowledge 
of all the bones that enter into the framework of the 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 335 

human being, or of the lower organizations. Do you 
suppose that a healthy man would ever have concerned 
himself with the items of his structure? Never! Per- 
fect success in health would have kept the world in 
total ignorance of its anatomy and physiology. Dis- 
ease has been our blessing ! It strikes at the bone. 
Then comes the surgeon with his scalpel, separating 
parts and revealing structure, and thus he becomes a 
learned man : next he teaches anatomy to the classes, 
and then the classes go out, and thus a true education 
finally filters through the interstices of all human expe- 
rience. And to-day almost every person knows that 
he has 247 bones in his body, and that woman is con- 
stituted precisely the same ; and that the doctrine that 
man lost a rib originally is just as true as any other 
ancient myth — that is to say, in its external sense, not 
true at all. 

Then came the beautiful knowledge of physiology. 
This science is now one of the .useful ornaments of a 
gentleman's education. Ladies, also, have begun to 
acquire great riches in the direction of organs and 
functions. Disease has been the world's great teacher. 
People just begin to discover that there are such things 
as nerves ! They have been long told by physicians 
that there were such conductors; but now they know 
the thrilling fact. Old sturdy Britons and Northern 
lords knew nothing of nerves. Read their books, and 
you will find scarcely an allusion to such impressible 
structures. A nation had to become sick — the whole 
people had to be cast down in sorrow — before man's 
mind could be moved to seek out knowledge of that 
mysterious system which connects his brain with all 



336 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

his senses, and the senses with the whole universe 
without. 

Insanity, too, had to exist before phrenology could 
be practically developed and demonstrated. Mental 
diseases had to abound, and crime in its most mis- 
chievous forms also, before phrenology became the 
world's absolute necessity. The science is the child 
of research and misfortune, and for this reason phre- 
nology has conquered much ignorance, and has given 
men practical knowledge of themselves. 

Again, mankind were obliged to be afflicted and 
defeated with sickness in the spirit, moral prostrations, 
vices, and discords. There had to be swearing, pro- 
fanity of various kinds, and licentiousness also, before 
men would seek out the great developments of music, 
art, religion — those higher blessings which enter into 
the spiritual education and happiness of the world. It 
was necessarv that the world should suffer from its 
ignorance and defeats • before men could be induced to 
inquire concerning the spiritual laws and inner princi- 
ples of their existence. Men who had never seen or 
experienced auy such evils as larceny, incendiarism, or 
murder, would never hare concerned themselves with 
virtue, with truth, and with legal agents and instru- 
mentalities by which virtue and truth are advocated, 
vindicated, and developed. Great saving constructive 
truths would never have appeared to the human mind 
were it not for the discords of society and the dire dis- 
eases of individuals. 

The best knowledge in the world is attributable to 
the world's ignorance. Misfortune is esteemed by 
Divinity of as much value as success. Defeat is just 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 



337 



as truly a part of God's great system as victory. Vice 
is a portion of the system — it is not an accident — for it 
brings victories as well as virtues. 1 verily believe 
tills country's salvation is inseparable from the colossal 
lies which decorate the throne of Jefferson Davis. How 
could it be otherwise? How could the political crab- 
sterians of this country discover that the millions who 
have been working for nothing in the South, are children 
of God and the victims of wrong political circum- 
stances, were it not for the moral, political, social, and 
civil degradations which those same circumstances have 
developed among the whites ? White ninnies and black 
picaninnies walk side by side, and all parties are- 
moving on the road leading to an equal success 
through desperate and blood-stained defeats. 

Do you suppose that Abraham Lincoln would have 
felt the " military necessity" which prompted his first 
of January edict, if our armies had been successful six 
months before? The civilized world looks at the brave, 
strong, powerful North, and is amazed at its de- 
feats. But the future will look upon those weeks and 
months of our national agony and despair with awe, 
gratitude, and th mksgiving. The " military neces- 
sity" of the 1st of January, 1863, will beget and 
become a " moral necessity." 

Already the people of the North are opening their 
hearts to the conception that the black man is able and 
anxious to defend the rights of the white man. " This 
is a white man's war,'' said the proud, successful 
Northmen. " We will fight our own battles, win our 
own victories, and obtain much credit in the political 
heaven for achieving all this sublime success." Our 



338 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

private merchants and our public ministers, as with one 
voice, said : " We shall have the glorious honor of 
beholding a white man's laurel on the brow of the 
potential North." Well, we have learned, sadly enough, 
that all this boasting and presumption, this pedantry 
and heartless assumption of power, has been forced 
down with its knees in the dust. The whole people see 
that further humiliations are in store before real vic- 
tory can crown the brow of the North ; and so seeing, 
they are imperceptibly converted to a higher religion 
than the churches can impart. I know that a few 
churches begin to recognize this ; but did they recog- 
nize it at the start? No! Ministers have been edu- 
cated by this war as much as merchants, bankers, 
farmers, and mechanics. Brigadier-Generals know no 
more about the future than does the private warrior 
who went bravely forth from the mechanic's shop, the 
factory, or the field, bearing the musket snugly against 
his shoulder, and groaning (sometimes with homesick, 
despairingthoughts,) under the weight of his overloaded 
knapsack. . But he knows as much, thinks as clearly, 
feels as much true patriotism as do the Brigadier? 
and Major-Generals who ride with plumes along the 
front, "the observed of all observers " — all being edu- 
cated alike ; all gone to school together. 

Old theology teaches persons who go through these 
long avenues on to battle, that if they have not 
accepted Christ and the means of salvation, they will 
go down to endless night. B':i the dhine truth of 
Nature (which is God's only gospel) speaking deep 
down in the soul of such persons, causes them to say, 
" I do not believe it." The minister says, " That 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 339 

is Satan's voice." Intuition, however, takes the 
responsibility-, and so the soldier, without conversion, 
marches on to battle. He vaguely, yet strongly feels, 
in his deepest soul, that if he should die in the midst 
of carnage, fighting for his flag and the country, the 
duty which he is performing and the motive which 
actuates him will be equal to the merits of Christ. So 
he practically sees the goodness of God, and believes 
in his own salvation. And what is more curious, his 
mother at home believes it also. She says: "To be 
sure, Charles never went to church ; he seemed to be 
irreligious on Sundays; but he was better than most 
young men, and, though he was a little wild, yet he 
died doing his duty, bravely and fearlessly at the can- 
non's mouth ; and I know that our Savior is very mer- 
ciful, and though he was not 'converted,' as was 
supposed, no doubt God, who seeth the falling sparrow, 
will take him home to glory." 

That is the great gospel of Mother Nature ! That 
is the voice of the living God speaking higher than 
theology, and above all the superstitions which crowd 
the mother's mind. Let us pray that all mothers — 
w r hen the deep sorrow comes to the heart — may have 
the great joy of believing truth direct from Deity. 
Notwithstanding his waywardness, his evils, imperfec- 
tions, cruelties at home, negligence even — still, over all 
and through all, is the intuitive belief that the heavens 
open and receive the soldier-son. That, I say, is the 
word of God speaking in the woman's heart in the cool 
of the day, when sorrow presses heavily, when the wine 
of truth comes bleedingly out of her spirit. 

But let a mother go on with social and worldly 



340 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

success — let her feel the pressure of no great sorrow — 
and her theology will be a pampered idol. She will 
oppose the Reformer and sneer at the Spiritualist. She 
docs not believe in the war ; or, if she does, it is with 
hate, like the politicians. But let a weighty sorrow 
come to her heart, and forthwith she rises up into a 
beautiful transformation of spirit; and then from igno- 
rance she goes to knowledge, from theology to wisdom, 
from despair to hope, from doubt to faith, from defeat 
to victory. 

For all these reasons I pity a village that has never 
had a mob. Go into a Connecticut town that has never 
had anything to disturb it worse than a few boys steal- 
ing melons in the summer time, or some dogs that kill 
the sheep — suppose no great disturbance, no deep agi- 
tation, had come to that town — behold the utter 
imbecility there in regard to the great moving princi- 
ples of the world ! They read old newspapers thajt 
were published half a century ago, edited by persons 
who got their education one hundred years ago, and 
who taught things that are two and a half centuries 
old. They own the oldest books, which contain the 
oldest sermons and inculcate the poorest thoughts. 
They read the Bible with the oldest pair of spectacles 
in the house, and they judge of modern things through 
the Testaments, portions of which are at least three 
thousand years behind the age. 

Now look at the city or village that has been stir- 
red. Some reformatory man went there, who aroused 
the passions and prejudices of the people. They were 
obliged to hunt up their unmarketable eggs to express 
their profound disgust with the reformer's sentiments. 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 341 

Perhaps be was an Anti-slavery man, or a Woman's 
Rights speaker, or some thorough-going temperance 
reformer, or — which is still more dreadful — some long- 
haired and large-brained Spiritualist. The community 
so visited has received a shock, a vibration, a move- 
ment from its center, which is the commencement of its 
success in development. 

Now take this country. The iron-clads and the 
Monitors that are to go forth to victory, have come out 
of defeats. -In Hampton Roads, in sight of Fortress 
Monroe, the Merrimac had to come. She was the 
Confederate's victory. But we had to be defeated 
before a Monitor could come out of these machine- 
shops — freighted with prodigious strength, with 
almighty energy — blasting that invention of the Con- 
federates in its very eyes, and giving such a demonstra- 
tion of power as to alarm the North with its own 
success. Do you not also see that the Monitor had to 
die, to sink, before future Monitors would be made 
impervious to tempests and waves? Let her go ; let 
her bravely sink. " It is but to another sea." The 
people rise up to a more perfect work. Our engineers, 
our machinists, our scientific men, our inventors — all 
spring like angels of light to the rescue ! Give us 
defeat, not only in Hampton Roads, but also near Cape 
Hatteras ! 

Now, what has Disease done ? It has brought the 
sciences of Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Therapeu- 
tics — these volumes of education upon which scientific 
and school men pride themselves. And what has been 
the result ? The expansion of useful knowledge among 
the people, urging them to overcome the causes of dis- 



342 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE, 

ease and to learn the simple ways of Health. There is, 
consequently, only about one person in every twenty- 
three really sick at any one time. The twenty-two are 
not perfectly well — that is too much for the terrestrial 
sphere; but there is only one of the twenty-three who 
is prostrated, or silent, white, and waiting at the 
golden gate of the Summer-Land. So that, at this 
moment, while I am speaking to you, there are not more 
than 1,370,-000 persons actually sick in America. 
According to the last census there were about 
32,000,000 persons in the United States ; and only about 
one in every twenty-three was prostrated by disease 
Why, the world is almost perfectly healthy — just sick- 
ness and suffering enough to keep us busy and on the 
high road to victorious Science. 

The defeats of the Allopathic system — what have 
they led to ? Why, they have led, through salivation, 
to salvation ! Behold those crystal colleges, devoted 
to higher medical education, teaching the system of 
Hahnemann, or the system of Priesnitz, or both, and 
the system of Franklin — electricity, and the system of 
Mesmer — magnetism, and next the system of God — 

INDEPENDENCE OF ALL MEDICINE ! 

Let us thank all who populate heaven for our 
defeats, diseases, accidents, and disappointments. Why, 
Bull Run was but the commencement of that race which 
shall, not stop until the golden summits of Liberty are 
fully attained! We have only "gone around Robin 
Hood's barn." There is vastly more courage and real 
success in backing out of tire than there is in going 
uselessly into it and dying foolishly. We had strength 
and wisdom enough to retreat when disaster was upon 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 343 

us. There was a Divinity shaping our ends — teaching 
us that Freedom is the moral as well as the military 
necessity of America's inhabitants. 

Men in business do not arise to the true moral 
position. They cannot do it until they are bankrupt, 
and they may, therefore, soon become so. What makes 
slavery so popular at the South ? Because of its great 
mercantile, and commercial, and local advantages, and 
not because of its moral, spiritual, and political advan- 
tages. It is popular because men and women, resting 
in the lap of luxury, can get money without earning it, 
can whip or hire it done, and out of the affliction of 
others realize two or three hundred per cent, on their 
hereditary investment. That is the reason why it is 
popular. Men are not constituted to continue long in 
that which brings bankruptcy. The slaves of the 
South have earned the wealth of the South. Many 
great folks who live in luxury in the North, are trem- 
bling lest these multiplied and triple- fold taxes will 
sweep away their fortunes and leave them at the altar 
of repentance. Many such persons tremble because 
they are living on the earnings of slaves. Men who 
have amassed large estates by the misfortunes and vic- 
timizations of the black people, have had the most 
miserable " success.'' Oh, what a desperate victory ? 
It is dreadful, dir'eful, devilful, hellful — damnation is 
the result! Every such estate will melt like a moun- 
tain of ice before the summer sun. 

Before this war commenced many persons who were 

i unfaithful to the ordinary obligations of truth became 

tangled up with and woven into this great national 

trouble. They ripened on the very sorrows and sick- 



34:4 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

nesses and slaveries of the people. Let the moneyed 
institutions groan ! It is an honest symptom of coming 
success for Truth and Justice — but remember, such suc- 
cess is coming through bankruptcy, through painful 
defeats! It is very gratifying to go into business and 
obtain money — mere animal excitement and happiness 
— have credit, so that no man questions you, with all 
your drafts instantly honored. Such a man does not 
care to attend Progressive Meetings. He goes to a pop- 
ular church every Sunday, where it is only necessary to 
pay and keep still. But when the Sun of Righteousness 
comes over the horizon of disasters and melts away all 
his property, and when his great wealth floats down 
into the little rivulets of other individual possessions, 
then he goes in haste to his minister ; he is spiritually 
sick, is alarmed for his soul, and begins to inquire the 
shortest way to the residence of the Holy Ghost. Do 
we not read in the New Testament that the young man 
was " very sorrowful, because he had great posses- 
sions'" ? He was materially successful — that was the 
hidden secret — so successful, indeed, that he was 
defeated every moment. 

The man who is most unhappy, restless, defeated, 
is the man who appears to be in the midst of plenty and 
opulence. I wish mankind could see this immutable 
truth more clearly. They would then never become 
bankrupt. But not seeing it, they yield themselves to 
discord, to disappointment, and die with a thunder- 
stroke of Fate ! 

But a true Spiritualist cannot be cast down. He 
cannot be thrown into these vales of disappointment. 
No matter where he is, or in what he is laudably 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 345 

engaged, he finds that the eternal principles of the uni- 
verse are filled with God's loving spirit, and in them 
he knows that he is- safe, and beyond the possibility of 
(icieat. 

It is philosophical to believe in the benefits of 
defeats. The shipwrecked mariner contributes by his 
disaster just so much toward making all other ships 
safer. The Great Eastern had mishap after mishap in 
order that vessels hereafter should not be so ambitious 
in size, but more secure. Every accident on a railroad 
is but another step toward expedition and safety. 

Seeing all this, I wonder how men can live or die 
worshiping the idol of theology, or believing in any 
creed in Christendom. I wonder not that they are 
mentally prostrated, with only what they call "faith" 
to give them a glimmering of rest just before the tomb- 
gate opens to receive them. They go down into the 
grave, and friends write on their tombstones that, 
when the angel comes and the trumpet sounds, then 
there will be a resurrection. But the true Spiritualist 
sees that there is no sepulcher, no tomb ; that the 
world is regulated without accidents, and that death is 
nothing but a gentle " defeat," which excludes the 
cypress and includes the laurel. Flowers bloom o'er 
the death-bed of that mind which sees God's smiles 
behind frowning clouds and tempests. The Christian's 
<; hope" and this knowledge among Spiritualists are the 
same in their effect upon the sentiments. When the 
Christian feels the " faith" which is peculiar to the 
Spiritualism of Christianity and identical with the 
knowledge of Spiritualism in these days, it is the light 
of a common Deity speaking through the intuitions and 



"'- ': '■ J ' 



I jf-A . 



346 PHILOSOPHY OP SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

the moral faculties, saying to the prostrated one : 
" Thou shalt live bevond the tomb." 

" The Summer- Land is not afaT off. It is environ- 
ing this world of ours, encasing it as the general air. 
It surrounds this world on all sides, so that, whether 
pointing up at noonday or at midnight, you point 
toward your home which is "eternal in the heavens." 
It is through the narrow, strait gate of defeat and 
of death, but it deepens into unutterable splendor and 
undying exhibitions of infinitude. That world hovers 
all around this, world of winter, even as the golden era 
of peace is ready to pervade this terrible era of war. 

War is the production of the cellar-kitchen of 
human nationality and progress. It never comes from 
the upper chambers in the temple of human growth. 
It is natural to have war in the basement of our life. 
There war is perfectly natural ; not outside of God's 
providence, but as much in it as is the highest and most 
beautiful flower of peace. 

The doctrine that you are fighting the devil when 
you are favoring the Deity, is worthy only of low and 
uneducated minds. Whichever way you work, - you 
work for the ultimate glory of the universal system. 
God is in it. I mean by " God/' the highest Truth, 
the highest Principle, the highest Virtue, the highest 
idea of whatsoever is Central and Perfect. The embo- 
diment of these conceptions — the crystallization of all 
high thoughts and intuitions— is " God." God may be 
a monster to one in a monstrous state of mind. He is 
a heathen God to the heathen mind. He is a God of 
battle to the Major-general, but always a God of peace 
to " the pure in heart." 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 347 

We have acquired a larger vision, and see princi- 
ples in their grand, boundless operation, breaking out 
of the Infinite bosom with o-reat success, which come 
from fine personal spasms and the awful experiences of 
rough public defeats. When men learn that war is to 
die, they will also learn that disease is to die ; but 
while they believe that war is an inevitable part of 
human society and progress, and « will continue through 
all the cycles of human history," they then teach a des- 
perate error, and are defeated through their lessons of 
faith in God and Humanity. Their misery, their 
despondency, their downcast hearts, and their deploring 
spirits, will constitute their best teachers ; but we 
believe that the time will come when they will attain 
to the summit of a better conviction, and say : " Sin 
abounded, that grace might much more abound:" dis- 
cord, that harmony might come ; ignorance, that know- 
ledge might bloom and blossom as the rose ; misfor- 
tune, that success could come; death, that immortality 
could crown the life of man ; the sepulcher being 
necessary for the new truth, and the stone necessary to 
keep it entombed until the time should arrive for its 
out-bursting development. Behold! defeat is crowned 
at length with victory. The stone is rolled away, 
truth arises, and those who stand guard over it say, 
"Nay, this was buried, and it may now come forth." 

Do you not feel thankful that the Romans came into 
England, and that when they found the old ancient 
Britons there they straightway put those Britons in 
bondage? What would England be to-day if it had 
not been for the defeat of those Britons and for the 
success of the Romans, and the Saxons, and the Nor- 



/ 



34:8 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

mans.^ Their defeat was necessary for that great, pow- 
erful, commercial, arrogant nation, which to-day is 
giving America her finest lesson. It is the lesson of 
national consolidation — extending the front of educa- 
tion, of art, of commerce, and of liberty, though 
through a monarchial system. She became more lib- 
eral than Rome, though Rome was a republic. Whal 
kind of a republic? A republic for those who had 
arms to defend themselves against the Goths and the 
Yandals. It was not the Liberty, the high republic, 
which gives to every man and woman an expression. 
America, to-day, appears as a great success out of the 
defeats of these elder nations. England is not a per- 
fect republic, because England came from ancestors 
who taught the monarchial system. She inherits the 
forces and features of the past. 

But America threw off that hereditary disaster, and 
out of the defeats of the Past she is urging forward the 
victory of the Present. Suppose that persecution had 
never reached those old Dissenters in Nottingham, in 
England — suppose that persecution had never driven 
them to Holland — what would have become of Ply- 
mouth Rock ? The Pilgrims laid the foundation for 
the Puritanic temple of perpendicular righteousness, 
and of Yankee chicanery and machinery as well. 
Otherwise the temple could never have been erected. 
Governor Bradford were a myth, had it not been for 
the great persecutions and the bitter defeats which 
those early Dissenters experienced. Defeats drove 
them from Nottingham to Holland, and thence, in the 
midst of their physical embarrassments and great priva- 
tions, they came all the way across the Atlantic to' the 



DEFEATS AND VICTORIES. 349 

Western shore. Plymouth Rock is the victory of 
many defeats and misfortunes. But the descendants 
of that Rock are destined to develop the palladium of 
universal Freedom, and to make the immortal edict of 
Emancipation a moral as well as a military necessity. 



ETERNAL VALUE OF PURE PURPOSES. 



" A good man is God's best legacy to this straying world." 

The human mind irresistibly seeks for uses, ends, 
results. It is impossible to repress this tendency of our 
intellectual and imaginative powers. They naturally 
trace out ultimates. This is true, because the mind is 
constituted'with a specific ultimate — because it is itself 
the development of a central design. The mental 
organization carries out its tendencies as naturally as 
the dancing streamlets flow from mountain-sides to the 
welcoming plains. It is the involuntary flow of the 
interior — through the reasoning powers — toward ulti- 
mates ! If the reasoning powers are well-balanced, 
vigorous, and pure, the rule then is, that the under- 
standing, by moving steadily along the line of logic, 
will arrive at the most reasonable solution of whatever 
problem is presented. This uniform reasonableness is 
what men call " common sense." Persons having this 
sixth sense — this admirable arrangement of these beau- 
tiful and immortal endowments — can take in a large 
field of observation, and arrive rapidly at healthy and 
certain conclusions. It is, so to sa} r , a clairvoyance of 
the reasoning powers. Some minds, by the exercise of 
such common sense — that is to say, by obtaining the 



ETERNAL VALUE OF PURE PURPOSES. 351 

yerdict of a well-balanced class of intellectual thinking 
powers — seem to see as accurately through the incoming 
future, and to prophesy events and results, as though 
Clairvoyance itself sat enthroned in the spirit. Clair- 
vovance is the far-soaring eagle's flight — the lightning's 
flash — along the line of cause and effect. It arrives at 
remote results without the exercise of the reasoning 
powers. Hence the clairvoyant may not, in the ordinary 
state, possess what is called " common sense." Clair- 
voyance, in many minds, gets the start by years, and, 
in some instances, it may be centuries in advance of 
the moral growth and out-rounding of the soul. 

The forecasting abilities of the intellectual facul- 
ties — the grasping healthily all parts and details of'the 
field of perception and consciousness — is the normal 
exercise of man's normal and beautiful endowments. 
Their exercise promotes and advances the individual to 
the superior state ; to attain which, many minds are 
obliged first to be magnetized or mediumized. Very 
great mediums are sometimes no better or wiser in 
matters within the sphere of common sense, even while 
under the influence of the afflatus, than are some persons 
who have no such experience, but who, by the natural 
and just exercise of their energetic and well-balanced 
powers, philosophically see principles, causes, effects, 
and their results. 

This irresistible tendency, streaming through all 
the thinking powers, demonstrates the central fact that 
the spirit is constructed, on a plan of pure reason and 
harmony. This harmonial design lies in the very found- 
ation of the human mind. The spiritual universe is 
filled with Designs. You naturally ask, " Cui bono t" 



352 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

— what use, or what good ? This question was asked 
of every new thing that ever started. The irrepressi- 
ble tendency of the spirit to put this question, is owing 
to the fundamental fact that the mind itself is con- 
structed upon a living divine Design — upon Use. 
Nothing grows, nothing walks, nothing wings its way 
through the free air — whether great or insignificant, 
beautiful or otherwise — but gives rise to questions of 
Use, in the little child as well as in the mind of the full- 
grown man or woman. The first conception that a 
man or woman must attain to, before the spirit-mind is 
rounded out and fashioned into the beautiful and har- 
monious proportions of a pure Purpose, is this concep- 
tion of inborn Use. You remember the Platonic, 
spiritual verse in the third chapter of John, where the 
materialist, Nicodemus, came and held a conversation 
with the illuminated son of Joseph and Mary. How 
beautifully and truthfully it was said that " That which 
is born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born 
of the spirit, is spirit.''' We know by the uni- 
versal testimony of the world — yet more certainly by 
experience and observation — that that which is flesh 
dies, goes down, sickens, and despairs ; while that 
which is spirit goes up and on — because retrogression 
to it is impossible — because, like truth, it is immortal 
and cannot die ! A Purpose that is conceived in the 
spirit, which is brought forth in the beauty of its 
powers — a Purpose which goes before the soul like a 
pillar of guiding light, drawing it magnetically onward 
— is certain to consecrate, to lift, to renew, to baptize, 
to round out, to make perfect, angelic, heavenly, even 
as the Infinite is perfect. 



ETERNAL VALUE OF PUKE PURPOSES. 353 

A high, pure Purpose, be it remembered, is possible 
only to spirit. Ambition is earthly ; aspiration is 
spiritual. They are analogous, resemble each other, 
just as common sense, in its healthful exercise, bears a 
likeness to the superior condition, with its pure and 
independent clairvoyance. A human mind may be 
actuated by " ambition," and the individual may suc- 
cessfully go on in the road which the ambition indi- 
cates, but its success will be parallel with the earth, 
with society, with what is for the hour called *.« success," 
" victory," " conquest ;" while the mind that dreamily 
and confidingly floats in the celestial rivers of " aspira- 
tion," may not be successful according to popular 
standards of judgment. Such a person may seem to 
fail, or really fail, when measured by the world's rules 
of success ; but, believe me, that soul surely succeeds in 
whatsoever is permanent and glorious, because its pure 
Purpose brings the inmost spirit into harmony with 
pure Truth, which is eternal ! There is no failure, no* 
defeat, no killing disappointment, in the mind that is 
exclusively moved by a high Purpose in its external 
relations to mankind. Success always attends the steps 
of such an one. But when a person is moved by an 
"ambition" to accomplish an ordinary end — which 
would be considered by society a high and victorious 
result — he is sure to be defeated. This wretched expe- 
rience dates from the time he starts, and is continued 
until he sits down in his uneasy chair to review the 
ill-spent past. 

The Jews killed the spiritually-unfolded son of Jo- 
seph and Mary. They were pre-eminently " victorious" 
in the judgment of the whole Roman Empire. His 



35rt PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

arrest., trial, condemnation, and execution — each step 
was pronounced a "success" as far as the circunis 
were known. (The fact is. however, that i r 

nothing was known of the transaction, except locally.) 
The crucifixion was co: ] a great K trium| 

law and order over anarchy and heresy. And many 
thanked those who nailed his body to the wooden cross. 
But there was one in the midst of all that row and riot, 
bloodshed and diabolism, who was momentarily and 
perfectly " successful,*'" viz., the man who had a pure 
Purpose enthroned in his spirit, magnetically and per- 
petually calling him onward and upward in the divine 
line of his work. 

It has been shown that Nature, through all her 
forces, works for the development of individualized 
human beings: that all the lower kingdoms and ?• — 
terns of life, combined, are but the scaffolding of the 
building : and that all parts subserve the elaboration 
and perfection of human bodies and souls. From the 
lowest monad to the animal that comes nearest man, in 

ciation and usefulness, there is visible this con- 
tinued beautiful flow of ; * Design,'* mounting up to the 

-proportioned, harmonious human organization. 

Xature, then, has a high Purpose, and she works to 
no other Eni. It is not merely to organize a physiolog- 
ical being, to make a perfect anatomy and a fine pi - 
siology. Our great Mother's purpose is far, far higher. 
It is to so constmct an anatomy and physiology that 
the soul, like a garment, may be accumulated and lb. 
about the more interior being, the Spirit, which is 
golden and immortal ; which will be so beautifully and 
so harmoniously arrayed, that, when we each pass from 



ETERNAL VALUE OF PURE PURPOSES. 355 

this existence, the revolutions of eternal spheres and the 
destruction of innumerable stars can never impair our 
youthfulness, or in any degree disturb the deep flow of 
the heart's exalted happiness. Yea, Nature has a high 
and pure Purpose. If her work was simply to make a 
fish, she would fail. If she had not a mission far above 
and beyond all fishes, reptiles, birds, marsupials, and 
mammalials — a Purpose to which those organized forms 
of life unitedly labor, of which they are but parts and 
fragments — she would " fail" utterly in all her move- 
ments and ministrations. To individualize the immortal 
human spiiit, and to make for it a garment — an envelop- 
ing soul — after the fashion of the physical body, which 
shall withstand the revolutions of eternity, and always 
be young aud beautiful to look upon — this is the high 
Purpose, the pure Design, which consecrates the unal- 
terable labors. of -Nature, and lifts the whole system 
into a divine and glorious significance. 

Nature, therefore,, has given the lesson. Can you 
not follow it ? How can you fail to respond to the 
vibration of that electric current of " Design" which 
the Divine has communicated to all parts of the spiritual 
universe, and which goes quivering and shimmering 
through systems of suns as it throbs through the facul- 
ties of your immortal mind? I know you cannot resist 
it. You begin life by asking, " Cui bono ?" This is 
the beginning of Use. In the most inferior and ridicu- 
lous expression of that interrogatory you may see the 
alphabet of that harmonial poetry of pure " Purpose," 
which will be epical and lyrical as it sweeps through 
eternal years. 

Suppose a young man enters college. He is induced 



356 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

to study for some particular profession — a lawyer, a 
physician, or, if he be not in mental and physical health, 
a clergyman. But if he be bodily robust and intel- 
lectually sturdy and strong, and is good with his jack- 
knife, why, then, perhaps, his best friends will want 
him to study for a boss-mechanic. If he has inherited 
large scheming powers, with the outlines of a lawyer, 
but deficient in the intellectual substance required for a 
high post in that profession, then he may direct his 
education toward Congress or for the Presidency. The 
young man is solemnly admonished to "aim" his studies 
at something. But this is true, that, if his aim be for 
nothing more than what is called "success" in the 
chosen profession, he is extremely likely to turn out a 
mistake and an ordinary character. If his Purpose in 
life is embodied in the thought of being ordinarily 
"successful" in any one of its departments, then he will 
be " defeated" and crippled from the very moment of 
his graduation with such an ambition. What percent- 
age of the students, who come out of colleges, amount 
to anything, as men among men ? About twenty in 
every hundred of those who graduate from our, best 
colleges amount to something in the world's esteem — all 
the rest " fail." Merchants fail in a very much larger 
proportion. Politicians fail at the rate of 140 per 
cent. Men fail in all situations just in proportion to 
the immorality of their motives. 

When a man desires to be of service to the Uni- 
verse, when he yearns to live not for his own sake, not 
for his own personal benefit alone, but for the benefit, 
advancement, civilization, and spiritualization of the 
millions, then he has in him that Savior which will 






ETERNAL VALUE OF PURE PURPOSES. 357 

preserve him from harm and from defeat through all 
disasters and earthly besetments. He can not experi- 
ence what is called demoralization or discouragement. 
He may overwork, he may lie down, as did the great- 
minded Theodore Parker, in the midst of his gigantic 
industry, and die up into the Summer-Land ; but as 
surely as that transformation takes place on earth, so 
surely, if you will but look with your intellectual tele- 
scope, you may behold a new, bright, beautiful orb, 
shining in the spiritual heavens. The politician dies at 
the same time — the man who lived for himself, for little 
earthly, sickly, temporary purposes — and goes also to 
the Summer-Life at the same time. You would be 
obliged to look with a powerful microscope to see who 
or where be was. One man's spirit shines out goldenly 
and immortally in the firmament that spans the heavenly 
sphere. The other man's spirit, on the other hand, 
hovers and shivers in the midst of all that diversified 
beauty and ineffable glory of the Infinite — is small and 
mean and cold beneath the heat and light of myriad 
suns — and would fain become a part of even one of the 
heavenly rays. 

What are we Americans doing ? What has the 
administration been trying to do ? We have been trying 
to "conquer a rebellion," but not to improve anything, 
either institutional or constitutional. The immoral 
purpose at the start was, not to improve a man, woman, 
or child on the continent, in respect to their civil, 
political, or religious circumstances, but to "crush the 
rebellion" and to restore things as they were — a philo- 
sophical absurdity, a political sham, a religious impos- 
sibility. Thus our people started with an impure 



358 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

purpose, filled with immoral designings, only to accom- 
plish the traditional ends of conservative power. Such 
is political power when not consecrated to divine uses! 
The result has been " failure" on all sides, or at best, 
but indifferent temporary success. 

You have read about a Father who so loved the 
world that he gave "his only begotten son" to rectify 
its errors and to save it — in short, gave his son for the 
pure purpose of doing all the good he could. On the 
same principle a great many fathers and mothers have 
also given " their only begotten sons" to march and die 
for Freedom. Why all this sentimental weeping and 
this sickly lamentation over that glorious sacrifice of 
the infinite heart that had as much power to endure as 
to propose the work ? (We are now supposing the theo- 
logical notion to be a truth ; not that we accept it 
literally.) Here are mothers and fathers, I repeat, 
who have given their "only begotten" to save American 
Freedom from destruction ; not only so, but those sons 
have been sent to expand our Liberty, to multiply it, 
and to cause it to abound from the Atlantic to the Paci- 
fic, from the remote North to the far South. How 
many of those dearly beloved " sons" have been cruci- 
fied ! How many of them have been in our hospitals, 
drinking gall and the bitterness of wormwood, and 
swallowing as medicines all sorts of contemptible trash! 
How many of them have had bayonets thrust into their 
bleeding sides ? How many have freely poured out 
their whole lives that Liberty "might "believe, be bap- 
tized, and be saved" ! Would it not be wisest to search 
outside of the realm of creeds to find objects sufficiently 
touching and sacred for the shedding of tears and the 
building of monuments? Let us have real objects and 



ETERNAL VALUE OF PURE PURPOSES. 359 

genuine causes for sadness and lamentation, for holy 
sorrow and devotional gratitude ; but no more of this 
dramatically-manufactured " holy sorrow," taught by 
men, who, perhaps, sincerely believe it, but who have 
not the courage to investigate it to its silly mythological 
foundation. Here, in this war, we have the real sacri- 
fice of truly begotten sons. The purposes of these fathers 
and mothers have been high and beautiful. They have 
in them a source of consolation that no Bible or church 
can either impart or remove. Their patriotic sons are 
slain — crucified on the cross of battle. Look at their 
downcast and weeping friends. No minister can 
assuage their sufferings. Their heart-pains cannot be 
mitigated by prayers. Nothing will do it but time 
with its upliftings, and the onward march of the 
soul of each. 

There were many in need of useful and profitable 
employment. Some of these enlisted for the war as 
they would go into any hazardous labor. I saw and 
conversed with a Massachusetts soldier — a fine enough 
looking man — going as a private down to New Orleans 
with General Banks. I said to him, " Why did you 
enlist?" "Well," he said, "wagon-making was poor 
business in our town, and I have a beautiful wife and 
two darling little ones, and they must be supported, 
and I got a bounty — more money than I could possibly 
get if I had worked at home for a long time — and I 
gave it to them and made other provision, so that, if I 
should not get through the war, my beloved family 
will be as much benefited as though I were to remain 
with them." 

There was dwelling in that soldier's soul a " pure 
purpose." He took his life in his hands and went to 



360 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

work for his beautiful wife and his darling two chil- 
dren. But if he had felt the urgent demands of Liberty 
also ? how much more noble ! 

Thus, if a man enters as a merchant into business, 
or, as a mechanic, accepts of labors, however low and 
undignified or however high and commanding, with a 
desire to benefit others by his labor, he is in the same pro- 
portion made spiritually buoyant, and the ordinary 
friction of life that would otherwise wear upon him is 
chiefly removed. He goes lovingly on to his business, 
not "dragging one foot before the other;" because he 
feels lifted and is blest — baptized and strengthened by 
the purity of his intentions. 

Live selfishly for yourself, and you will sit down at 
the end of life dissatisfied with human existence. You 
will be misanthropic, no matter whether you are sur- 
rounded by wealth or by poverty, by enemies or by 
friends. 

Therefore take to your heart the motive which is 
beautiful and heavenly in itself, live to make others 
better, and you will make yourself rounder, sweeter, 
more effective in all you do, gladsome, cheerful, buoy- 
ant, never cast down, always ready for good deeds; 
and a beautiful warmth will pervade your home, will 
follow you into the street. and into society, and noble 
beings will associate with you wherever you mingle 
wisely and lovingly with your fellow-men. 

Great men are always good men. " A good man is 
God's best legacy to this straying world." Such never 
" fail." The truly good cannot be unsuccessful. The 
son .of Joseph and Mary was not defeated when cruci- 
fied. Verily, there is eternal value in Pure Purposes. 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, BRAIN, AND SPIRIT. 



" If more would act the play of life, 

And fewer spoii it in rehearsal ; 
If bigotry would sheathe its knife 

Till good became more universal ; 
If men, when wrong beats down the right, 

Would strike together and restore it ; 
If right made might in every fight, 

The world would be the better for it." 

The impression comes to speak this morning on the 
subject of war — first, of the Blood ; second, of the 
Brain: third, of the Spirit ; or, in other language, (1.) the 
war of Gehenna, which means the underworld of pas- 
sion and selfish lusts that burn perpetually ; (2.) the 
war of the middle world, or Hades, which means the 
transition and wintery sphere in which we now live ; 
(3.) the war of the overworld, or Heaven, which means 
the moral and spiritual sphere of the immortal mind. 

Let your minds contemplate the universality of 
war. You will discover, after investigation, that war 
is universal. War is not excluded from heaven — i. e., 
from the presence of the inmost Spirit, although it ori- 
ginates only in the blood and in the force-departments 
of the brain. I speak now of the universality of the 
struggles, the encroachments, the infringements, and of 
the aggressional tendencies of aJl forces locked up and 



embodied in the organization of matter — beneath, 
-within, and round about us in the great mi 

All investigators discover penetralia within r 
tralia. troths within truths: or. as it is commonly 
; ed, wheels within wheels, de-_ ; within des s c 

ZS-rS "" 111 ~5r5 ;c 5 5: 

inquiring minds come at last to the wise conclusion that, 
i~ t ; ~:itten the unchangeable 

commandments (the laws w which all thii 

izz zizzz'.z:rz izi ^:~i::zL :_ r;r:f:-i. :: irr. r: : i~ 

^ z :.z ~_ -:::;: r : - : . T : - - . : . 

r \z~ Eiole before i: ^25 ■ ; : I. So 

the infinite designs and immutable laws written in human 
nature, as upon the whole universe, do not become 
plain to your understanding until you are fully sub- 
;>;:: . :: : .-. z;: ; :: ii:r:ir-r~fi:5 v.... rriLSjrfSs:: : =. 
and tried by the irrepressible tendency of your inr^ 
gating powers to pass through, and over, and bet- 
all thir. s S Dmething important to the whole universe 
takes placr every instant of time. No tide is perfectly 
inert Water presupposes motion, forward and back- 
ward, or rising and fall': r. The action of rising and 
failing tides upon substances pulverizes and c 
them into itself — dissolv a and makes them 

t:~ ~zzz 

liver is composed of an infinite number of lesser org 
or, more strictly speaking, they find that the 1: im- 

posed of very minute lobes, which in appearance exactly 
resemble the whole structure. The liver is a cellar, 
became compose^ of cells. How many persons 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, EEAiX, AXD SPIRIT. &Q3 

experience the truth of this ! The liver is Hades. It is 
the dark repository or grave-yard of whatsoever is 
broken-down in the constitution of the arterial blood. 
It is always gaining and always losing. Disease is pro- 
duced just as quickly by an excess as by a deficiency.* 

Xow what is the world's system of politics? Is it 
not the liver or kitchen department of human govern- 
ment and enterprise — a desire for system and regula- 
tion and order — composed of an infinite number of 
lesser policies, as the liver is composed of a countless 
number of infinitesimal livers ? 

It was said that a writing in milk when exposed to 
fire, becomes plain to the eye. So the Infinite laws and 
ultimate designs, exposed to the progressive abrasions 
and fiery frictions and irrepressible conflicts of human 
mind and moving matter, are brought into open reveal- 
ment; and only those faithful seers, who have wise 
eyes, can read the handwriting clearly, and truly inter- 
pret the Idea at the heart of the infinite designs. How 
do scientific men stand before the great universe of 
design ? They say, " Matter is regulated by unvarying 
methods. These methods are laws."' Here the spiritual 
philosopher approaches. He discovers within laws 
principles, within principles ideas, within ideas the 
infinitely and eternally thinking Father-God, and the 
impersonal love-fountain of the universe, or Mother- 
Nature. The spiritual philosopher finds something 
deeper and better and more interiorly satisfying than 
that which is brought to the world through external 
science. He discovers that the impersonal love-fount- 
ain, from which all things flow, is Nature, and that 
this productive heart of infinite love is " Mother." He 



364 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

discovers that Nature is not matter. Nature is a general 
term for the Mother-fountain of Love which moves and 
forms and molds all things, in conjunction with the 
masculine laws of Wisdom. The impersonal mind- 
•fountain — of formative laws and organizing energies — 
is the Father-Nature. "God is a spirit." The New 
Testament adds : " And he seeketh such to worship 
him." 

Why use the masculine adjective with reference to 
Deity ? Because the mind instinctively thinks of God 
as the source of thought and energy— executive, forma- 
tive, and legislative. 

If I were a clergyman (which, fortunately, I am 
not,) I should state this theological proposition in very 
different phraseology. Undoubtedly, I would employ 
New Testament language, or such words as would cor- 
respond to lessons that 1 had learned from authoritative 
books on theology. And yet, although I do not so 
employ language, I believe that I am not in conflict 
with the essential truths at the center of enlightened 
minds. I know not a civilized clergyman in the land 
with whom I might not shake hands on some of these 
theological principles. For example: They believe, or 
profess to believe, in a Supreme Source. So do we. 
They give it the theological, religious, and oriental 
name — " God." We give it the spiritual, philosophical, 
and scientific name — " Father-Nature. ,; The secta- 
rian war rises and continues from a vastly different use 
of human language with regard to identical meanings. 
Not interpreting the meaning which we intend to con- 
vey — by the use of different words, we kindle up 
antagonism in our neighbor's mind : and on the other 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, BRAIN, AND SPrRIT. 365 

hand, when he announces his thought, the meaning 
whereof not being fully conveyed to our mind, a corres- 
ponding fire is kindled up, and forthwith an explosion 
takes place — and an everlasting enmity and opposition 
drive out the angels of peace. There can be no recon- 
ciliation so long as men will not stop, in their haste, to 
give each other the central meanings which they 
designed should flow through their educational use of 
language. Let all men be cautious and just. Within all 
this mountainous mass of educational verbiage and con- 
troversy you may find, if you look patiently, the beautiful 
Sowings of identical immortal truths. The brotherhood 
of truth makes this " fraternity of ideas" absolutely 
certain in all true human hearts. 

Mother-Nature and Father-Nature — who might 
with propriety be named the Love-life and the Wisdom- 
power of the universe — live in eternal conjugal rela- 
tion each with the other. Matter is the indestructible 
chariot in which they together ride through the illim- 
itable star-strewn spaces of infinitude. We must learn 
to think deeply on this subject. We must deepen out 
of words into meanings, and penetrate through mean- 
ings to the source of inspiration. 

Water is the expression of inherent contention — the 
to and fro movement of the material and spiritual uni- 
verse. By means of this movement — this perpetual 
overthrow of equilibriums — all things are organized, 
inspired, and brought forth. Not only so, but thoy are 
also made to continually advance aloi)£ the onward 
way : yea, all improvement is accomplished and guaran- 
teed by the reciprocal action, or warlike contention, of 
opposite forces and immutable powers. 



366 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL IXTEECOUKSE. 

Let me illustrate. Justice is recognized by a 
perfect balance — a state of exact equilibrium. Place a 
stick across your finger. There is a point in that stick 
from which both ends will be precisely alike — each will 
wejgh the same — and, as a consequence, the stick will 
rest exactly in balance, without the least motion. If 
the universe were constructed upon that principle, all 
throbbing hearts and the infinite powers would cease to 
move; not a heart would beat; not a brain would 
think, not a tide flow, not a bird sing, not a tree would 
grow, but inertia and death would be universal. And 
yet the universe is constructed on Justice. But one 
end of the stick must weigh more than the other in order 
to produce motion. Then comes in a governing power 
to restore the lost balance; by the ace of balancing it, 
the power loads the opposite end, and thus is established 
the principle of reciprocation. The weight, (by 
changing from point to point,) produces every descrip- 
tion of motion. So the planets revolve about the sun. 
So also your blood flows from heart to brain, from 
brain to feet and hands, and back again to its central 
sources. All this illustrates the spirit of contention. 
This is what I mean by " the universality of war.'"' 

Right is the source of true might. An organ is not 
the cause of motion. The heart does not make the 
blood flow; it is rather a regulating and modifying 
oryan — chairman of the movement. Neither do the 
organs of the brain cause the blood to flow. The brain 
is not the primal source of its energies. The cerebral 
organization cannot keep itself in motion. It continu- 
ally inhales and exhales; always giving off an equiva- 
lent to what it may have taken in; always expelling 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, BRAIN, AND SPIRIT. 367 

the body of that which has been duly appropriated ; the 
magnetic and material weights are thus constantly 
changing from one pole of the cerebral battery to the 
other. The perpetual change is perpetual motion. This 
ceaseless motion produces refinement; this refinement 
insures advancement ; and. all true advancement is 
progress. Whatever is refined is expanded ; whatever 
is expanded occupies a larger sphere than it did a few 
minutes beforehand whatever is refined and expanded 
is more powerful, because it covers a larger radius in 
space, and permeates and inspires a larger mass of gross 
matter. 

Now do you suppose that God is a person, confined 
like a fountain of energy, at the very center of things? 
Theology taught an astronomer to say that God sent 
all these orbs that sparkle through the infinitude; that 
they were projected, as balls from the cannon's mouth, 
out of his formative powers. No man or woman, who 
thinks trul-v, would, ever attribute such works to an 
Infinite Spirit. An Infinite Spirit must be diffused through 
infinite space; and is therefore omnipresent in matter, 
and infinitely and universally powerful. Confinement, 
to the limits of personality, would limit its presence 
and power. In the infinite depths of the visible uni- 
versal whole you will find the beautiful Love-Fountain, 
and the Fountain of Wisdom, which are to our spirits 
both "Mother" and "Father" — both Nature and 
God — sweet, pure, perfect, beautiful — living with 
celestial and unchangeable harmony through all the 
life of things. 

What most satisfies your best affections? It is that 
holy experience by which you touch and feel the warm 



368 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

love of Deity. Where can you find that love, if not in 
the divine life of living things ? Can you find it in 
dead books, or in lifeless sentences ? Is it possible for 
bookmakers, down at the Bible House, to turn out that 
which will communicate God's love to your mind, by 
actual impartation. Reason tells you that it is not pos- 
sible. True, a spiritually-inspired sentence may arouse 
your slumbering thoughts to high action ; but if there 
be an impartation of life to your soul, it is from the 
life of things — from some hovering angel, or from some 
beautiful principle of truth that is both within and 
without. I admit the conviction that beautiful sen- 
tences, contained in the Bibles of the world, do, now 
and then, rouse dormant natures to thought and medi- 
tation, and to progress ; but I deny that anything within 
these printed words is the cause of that progress, medi- 
tation, and growth ; for all life proceeds from the living, 
breathing, palpitating Father and Mother, who are 
within all immutable laws and within all impersonal 
principles. It is the ideal and heavenly presence of 
their love and wisdom, which awakens and rouses, to a 
blooming grandeur and holy meditation, the inmost of 
your deepest intuitions ; for, under such influence, you 
feel as though you had just heard the " voice of God" 
in the " cool of the day,'' while you were silently walk- 
ing to and fro in the garden of thought. 

War is the outward method by which laws, princi- 
ples, and ideas work. (1.) Blood is animal; (2.) brain 
is thoughtful; (3.) spirit is heavenly. Heavenly wars? 
Yes. Every man's spirit is a soldier. Brain wars too ? 
Yes. Plenty of illustrations in the world's intellectual 
and political history. And also blood wars? Cer- 



/ 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, BRAIN, AKD SPIRIT. 369 

tainly, all beneath brain wars on that principle. I said 
the brain does not circulate the blood; neither does 
the heart; but that the heart is a regulator, a sort of 
chairman, and that the brain is conductor or superin- 
tendent of the movement. What, then, is the blood?. 
And how is it moved ? It is circulated by the laws and 
perpetually-broken equilibriums of reciprocal powers. 
The venous blood is negative ; the arterial blood posi- 
tive. Each overbalances the other by turns. How so ? 
By the respirational processes, and also by the magnetic 
and electric actions, through the breathings of the 
lungs and skin. All parts of a living body are inhaling 
and exhaling, every instant of time, like summer flowers 
that receive golden life and give off the spirit of fra- 
grance. The blood contains the power of its own 
motion. Human life ceases when the blood is poured 
out and lost, or when the vitality has been pumped out 
of the blood by the magnetic powers of the brain, which 
keeps drawing and pumping in order that its own forces 
may be renewed and existence guaranteed. A physio- 
logically well-balanced man or woman is one whose 
blood flows independently of either brain or heart ; that 
is to say, the circulation is from the intrinsic motive- 
energy of the blood itself. 

Blood wars, consequently, are inherent. Who taught 
the lion and the bear to go out and slay for their food 
and subsistence ? Not a teacher of war have they ever 
had, save the inherent voice of blood. It is constitu- 
tional. " What do you mean by that V I mean that 
the animal is acting in accordance with a Divine 
u idea" (design) expressing itself irrepressibly and 
unconsciously through the throbbing blood. 



370 PHILOSOPHY OP SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

Blood wars are Gehenna — full of fire and destruc- 
tion. Hades is the middle world, and the liver is the 
dark repository or grave-yard of the debris of the 
victims of war in the chemistry of life. In like manner 
the whole organic world is a burying-ground or reposi- 
tory, a hepatieal-hades, for the victims of progressive 
laws, which, in the animal world, as in man, operate 
through the life of the blood. 

All mankind inherit animal blood. We received it 
from our predecessors in the order of organization. No 
theology, no science, no philosophy can refute the doc- 
trine of the rudimental origin of human beings. I 
speak not of man's spirit, but of his material organiza- 
tion. Love and wisdom, in man and woman, came not 
from the lower world. But this organic machinery, 
which we name the physical body, and this blood which 
flows through its parts, and these elemental forces which 
constitute the body and final covering of the spirit, all 
these came out of the reservoir of matter and principles 
which preceded mankind in" the growth of the universe. 
Blood wars are described by the burning words of Dante, 
who saw, in " The Inferno" of his thought, the wars of 
demons, and now and then an " angel of light' 5 flitting 
through the darkened sky. Pollock and Milton, and 
indeed many other poets, who were gifted with powers 
adapted to conceiving and giving embodiment to ideas, 
have described wars in the lower world. Poets, unhap- 
pily, have located these conflicts to suit the Christians, 
in their fabled hell which God is supposed to have 
made from the foundations of the world. Poetry and 
theology will, in their details and geography, have no 
value in the grand analysis which is to come. We 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, BRAIN, AXD SPIRIT. 371 

accept only the inward flow of meaning. It is this : 
Poets have set to words and to music the actual "war" 
which originates from the combative forces that are 
accumulated and treasured up in the blood. 

Next, we come to consider the conflicts of Brain. 
These wars are based on differences of organization. 
There is no spirituality, no moral restraint, in brain 
wars. Intellect does not conciliate. The thinking 
powers are animated mostly by policies, convictions, 
ways and means, and expedients. They resolve upon 
the execution of their purposes. In this respect each 
man's brain is alike. Hence the origin of brain wars. 
It is thinking-force against thinking-force. Men cipher 
out problems through their intellectual organs, and 
each sets all his forces to work to accomplish results 
most congenial to his own interests. How many govern- 
ments have gone to war upon the principle of brain — 
thinking that it would be best. 

All the kings and emperors, all tyrants and poten- 
tates, go to war from the dictates of the brain. These 
are the w T ars of aggrandizement, wars for more power, 
wars for the possession of larger territories, wars for 
the acquisition of greater resources of wealth, wars for 
the establishment of kingdoms already possessed, wars 
for the accumulation of wider privileges on sea and 
land. These brain-wars are planned and premeditated 
with as much indifference to the claims of humanity as 
one would cipher out a sum on a slate. 

Spirit is not heard from in the jargon of such 
wars. It is very still — in the depths of the mind ; 
locked up, imbedded, as life sometimes is in the germs 
of trees. The wars of the spirit — how different ! Such 



372 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE* 

wars never occur except where Right is in jeopardy. 
Men of blood and men of brain avail themselves of all 
enginery, powers, and forces, that are known to be most 
destructive. But the Spirit, on the other hand, goes to 
war from its highest standard ; to penetrate the dark- 
ness of ignorance and error, and to shine lovingly into 
and through the darkness that rejects it ; to persevere 
in warring its way through, until it reaches the " point 
of light" in the world, or in the kindred spirit of a 
brother man. The moment the heart of love is touched 
by the penetration of spirit, like the rod that smote the 
rock, the waters of truth and affection flow, reconcilia- 
tion takes place, and the lion and the lamb lie down 
together. 

A war in the spirit is " a war in heaven" — per- 
vading and penetrating, impressing and uplifting, chas- 
tening and purifying, harmonizing and rendering 
universally happy the discordant forces and conflicting 
elements which come up to dwell with Spirit from the 
kingdoms of the under world. 

The man who fights " the good fight" from his 
Spirit, is infinitely more of a power than he who pro- 
ceeds to battle from the forces of his brain and blood. 
Neither man nor animal fights from blood except when 
its fires arrive at the point of a Gehennal-conflagration. 
The blow is struck somewhat as the ball leaps from the 
cannon's mouth — from an inherent, propulsive, explo- 
sive energy that cannot be repressed. Blood goes for 
the instantaneous destruction of its antagonist. It takes 
no thought ; therefore it is frequently forgiven in our 
courts of Justice. Unpremeditated murder, the destruc- 
tion of life in the heat (hell) of passion, {Gehenna,) is 
pot as punishable as is murder of the calculating brain. 



WARS OF THE BLOOD, BRAIN, AND SPIRIT. 373 

This form of Justice is intuition coming up through 
drunken judges ; it is the spirit of truth in man reach- 
ing out clumsily, yet really, after justice, love and 
right. 

The effect of the war of the Spirit upon the lower 
world is marked and lasting. The mythological state • 
ment is that Diana, by her long, eternal kiss of love, 
woke the dead Endymion " to life." Thus these spirit- 
wars in man's highest powers lift out of the " lowest 
darkness" the impulses of blood and other imps of self- 
ishness. As lilies of purest celestial whiteness grow in 
ponds, and bloom in their loveliness from the depths of 
corrupt marshes, so from Hadean and Gehennal regions 
in mankind — from the regions of the liver, the blood, 
and the brain, which are fed and filled from the dark- 
ness and corruptions of the physical world — out of all 
these come results which will ultimately bring happi- 
ness, and ornament, and beauty, and progress, and that 
sublime courage which is the hope of the world. The 
war of the Spirit may be represented and characterized 
by the picture of Raphael. He has beautifully and 
powerfully painted St. Margaret standing with her foot 
on " the great dragon." St. Margaret may be called 
" the Spirit" conquering the impulses and abolishing 
the wars of Blood and Brain. The human world is 
constituted of races somewhat as ethnologists have 
classified them. Commence at the top and count down, 
thus: Caucasian, Mongolian, African, Indian and 
Malayan. These five races may be subdivided, or they 
may be made more homogeneous and brought much 
nearer together. They would then literally represent 
Blood, Brain, Spirit. The Caucasian race (which, 
according to mythology, came from that beautiful 



374 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

mount from which the name is derived.) may be called 
the race of Spirit. Their greatest wars will be wars of 
spirit — the wars of Thought, of Ideas, of Principles — 
against the darkness of ignorance and error, against 
the brain and its calculating selfishness, against the 
blood' and its passion-fed fires and gehennal impulses. 
The true, forthcoming Caucasians will be conquerors; 
they will be masters of the races of the human world. 
The Mongolians are not conquerors ;• the Africans are 
not ; the Indians are not, but are, in fact, passing away. 

Now the blood-races are beneath, in Gehenna ; the 
brain-races are transitional, in Hades; the spirit-race, 
the Heavenly-family, is to come. Promises of the 
spirit-race have always dwelt among men. The race 
of brain will flower out and become spiritual inspira- 
tion, seeking after principles and ideas, seeking after 
God, libertv, fraternitv, harmonv. Members of the 
Spirit-race believe that all lower wars will be abol- 
ished ; that all men will be converted at last to the 
beautiful ways of good and truth ; that the might of the 
lower world will be directed by the whole world's 
Right! 

The Spirit-republic, unhappily, is not yet born. 
Its faintest foregleams are just now visible in the 
transitional republicanism of the land. Present signs 
presage the erection of that glorious future temple of 
truth and Brotherhood which will be carpeted with the 
beautiful designs of the Infinite mind — designs that 
will be revealed plainly to man's understanding by a full 
exposure of the world's life to the fires of blood- wars 
and brain-wars, which will cease only when the harmo- 
nial era is fully unfolded. 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 



" The Truth only needs to be for once spoke out, 
And there's such music in her, such strange rhythm, 
As makes men's memories her joyous slaves, 
Aud cliug arouud the soul, as the sky clings 
Round the mute earth, forever beautiful." 

Nature, left to herself, expresses outwardly what is 
inmost. Her truest and largest expression is two-fold 
— male and female — a divine revelation from the 
central golden fountains of the universe. It is a com- 
mon intuition that the universe is sexual. All human 
tongues, in one form of speech or another, name and 
address the different objects in Nature as though they 
were sexual. Full-grown men, like little boys, when 
speaking of a steamboat, say — "There she comes," or 
" How beautifully she sails I" Of the sun, " He shines." 
Of an iron-bodied and fire-heated locomotive the friend- 
ly engineer will very tenderly say, " She is the best 
machine on the road." Throughout the world you will ob- 
serve the same instinctive, unconscious acknowledgment 
of this universal truth. Not an intelligent man on the 
farm or in the garden but what is obliged to recognize 
these dual principles — male and female — in the swaying 
vine as in the animal stock, in the fruiting tree as in 
the blooming flower. Everything that grows, mani- 



376 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL intercourse. 

fests the internal and immutable principles of husband 
and wile, or father and mother. Enshrined in the 
golden fountains of the spiritual universe, is the central 
law which expands throughout infinitude, and expresses 
itself through an infinite variety of apparently opposite, 
but really united, principles of action, organization, and 
distribution. 

This subject comes challenging your reverent atten- 
tion this bright morning. Mankind do not naturally 
or intuitively associate and combine " God" and " Na- 
ture" as though they were one under different forms of 
expression. I know that it is possible to reason oneself 
into a proposition admitting the total identity and 
unity of the two ; so much so, indeed, that the absolute 
individuality of each may cease for a time to occupy any 
place in one's thoughts. But the moment you cease to 
think on the question of the difference between " God" 
and "Nature," or when you settle down into your 
normal consciousness, then Intuition from its deep 
sources declares fully of an eternal difference. Un- 
consciously, or rather without intellectual conscious- 
ness, you will allude to God, or to that mental something 
which represents the Divine source, as a masculine 
Energy, and then, as unconsciously and unthinkingly, 
you will speak of "Nature" as a feminine Fountain of 
love, beauty, and tenderness. It is natural, therefore, 
to feel and speak of Nature as " Mother" and of God 
as " Father." The human spirit left to itself, unre- 
strained and unwarped by educational impediments, 
instinctively adopts this form of expression. 

Here it becomes a°ain necessarv to sav that I mean 
by the word Nature, something different from the phy- 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 377 

sical constitution of things. The term is often used to 
signify merely the phenomenal universe — the objective 
world or svstem of worlds. I have often used the word 
in that commonly received sense. When so used, it 
should always be written without the capital N — 
simply, nature^ meaning the objective sphere or the 
nature of things. When used in an interior spiritual 
sense, it should invariably be written with the capital 
N not only, but the whole word might appear in capi- 
tals, because it assumes a new and far loftier situation 
in the spiritual order of thought. Vastly more interior 
sentiments and infinitely higher reflections are awakened 
and symbolized and expressed by this use of the term. 
" Nature/' in the interior sense, is the love-center of 
all Existences — the mother-heart of which " God" is 
the father-head or positive principle. Nature is the 
center of which God is the surrounding sphere of order 
and organization. 

Nature means, therefore, the internal love-source 
of all being. The common dictionary signification 
makes the word mean the fixed order of things. But, 
in the interior, the word will be found to signify and 
express the fountain-heart of the life of things. The 
physical universe — the objective sphere of matter — is 
not Nature. The following proposition is more truth- 
ful and philosophical : The phenomenal universe is a 
physical organization, and the spiritual universe is a 
spiritual organization ; and the two are expressions of 
the male and female principles, which are interior and 
invisible, and are not easily perceived nor comprehended 
by the external mind of sensuous thinkers. Nature, tl:3 
infinite heart, and God, the positive sphere, like soul 



378 PHILOSOPHY OF spiritual inteecouese. 

and brain married indissoluble, propagate both the 
physical and spiritual universe, which is interrelated to 
summer-spheres beyond all comprehension. Objects in 
the physical worlds, and human beings, including the 
higher grades oi* intelligences, are children born from 
that beautiful, infinite, central marriage of the" Father" 
and "Mother," the union of the Eternal heart with the 
Eternal head — the conjunction of Love and Wisdom — 
the positive and the negative in unchangeable conjugial 
harmony, giving rise to all that is, and to all that will 
ever be. As you behold in your children your propensities 
and your tendencies, your attributes and habits, your 
complexions, your hair and face, and the tone of your 
voice, so in the external workings of the physical 
universe, you may behold the attributes, the elements, 
and the primal principles of the Infinite Father and 
Mother. 

When you come to truly investigate the composition 
of mind, you will find in thoughts that are evolved two 
varieties of sentiment, or two classes of truths, that are 
strictly in harmony with the desires of the intellect, 
which the intellect alone recognizes and harmonizes 
with as its own legitimate offspring. These purely 
intellectual truths gain your respect, and sometimes 
your admiration. And yet they are not warm and 
loving; they are cold and calm, the keen-eyed children 
of the reflective and perceptive faculties. They may be 
mathematically accurate, and geometrically perfect in 
all their forms and expressions ; yet they eliminate only 
that clear, calm, electric life which the moon gives off to 
artiste, and to the photographers, who too soon dis- 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 370 

cover the absence of another principle by which alone 
chemical action can occur. 

Investigate further into the mind, and you will discover 
another class of truths which are nearer your affections, 
which cling like loving children around your heart and 
sympathies. Do they not belong to more interior parts 
of the mind ? They are sequestered and deeply vailed. 
They are inexpressible and indefinite. They float and 
sail like beautiful birds through the mind. They come 
together, they perch and sing for a moment, then 
depart for months. Other truths rest within ; they 
dwell in the heart, and are a part of it. We call these 
always-present truths the tendencies of the mind, or the 
instincts of the heart, which will express themselves in 
the various sentiments, actions, and relations of indi- 
vidual life. 

There is yet another class of truths which seem to 
have been born since we were born, that are not neces- 
sarily a part of us, that come in and go out in conse- 
quence of contact with other minds. These correlative 
or transmitted truths well up in us during the course of 
our ordinary development ; while those truths which 
were born with us, which are parts of the spirit itself, 
cause us to love flowers and music, poetry and beauty, 
affection and wisdom, Nature and God. They are the 
principles which should systematize the external action of 
men — should regulate and govern mankind during all 
their lives. 

Nature gets the start of the judgment, forestalls all 
discipline, and anticipates the highest experience. Edu- 
cation may greatly modify the inherited impulse and 
action of temperaments, yet the cure is not radical ; for 



380 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

when the temperaments have an opportunity to declare 
themselves, they will utterly centril'ugate all educational 
restrictions, and will express themselves freely, and 
that too from their own resources of instincts and ten- 
dencies. Such natures are called " incorrigible" by 
teachers in the different schools. They do not long 
submit to be ruled and disciplined by the methods of 
the schoolmen. There are multitudes of both men and 
women, of girls and boys, who are thus untrainable and 
unsusceptible; they are not necessarily "wild," but 
have, from the start of life, adopted their own deter- 
mined instincts and tendencies, and are unhappy, even 
miserable, unless they are left undisturbed to live the 
life of congenial proclivities. 

Other natures, perhaps born of the same parents, 
are plastic and easily molded. Such minds are more 
conscious of two different classes of truths than are 
either of the others. They can realize that there are 
truths which come into the mind from without; and yet 
other truths which come up from within, as water 
springs from the earth. Before these truths came you 
were like sealed fountains, waiting in fullness to flow. 
Every soul waits for some magic power to break down 
the embankments between the spirit and its external 
expression. That awakening power is remembered 
pleasurably through all your life as the captain of your 
exodus, when the whole current of life's inner being 
was turned into the celestial channel of a new expe- 
rience. How many there are who seem, even to them- 
selves, to be treasurers of great innate powers — waiting 
for some person, influence, or event, to give them the 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 381 

golden key with which to unlock their never-fully- 
expressed existence. 

These natures are waiting for the approach of those 
male and female principles. They are waiting for the 
approach of the masculine truth, or for the coming of 
this feminine truth, and they are alone until the right 
truth arrives. The spirit is in its bachelorhood, or in 
its maidenhood; it is waiting for the bridegroom, or 
for the bride. 

It is the presence of male and female truths in the 
soul, their nuptial relation, the joining and interrela- 
tionship of what before had not met, and which, when 
joined, will never be sundered. In Solomon's Songs, (so 
many of them seem unfit for human reading,) if your 
eyes be deep-sighted enough, you may go beneath the 
verbiage, and find that by the " maiden" is represented 
the female-principle in religion — the mother-soul, the 
wife-nature, the unmarried, a beautiful virgin going 
forth and seeking her mate. What is Judaism but a 
marriage of Egyptian philosophy with the religion of 
the Israelites ? The children of Israel were spiritual- 
ists in bondage in Egypt. The Egyptians were a people 
learned in science, in the objective facts and realities of 
the world — master Masons ; were vast and strong and 
ponderous in their thoughts and in many of their deed's, 
and thus they displayed the principle of masculinity. 
The Israelites furnished the female principle, and the 
marriage of those two made Judaism. There is no 
other way of accounting for the coming of that offspring. 
It was born legitimately. Judaism, however, was a 
masculine element. It was not a fine order of cultured 
and reverent affection for truth. It was objective, 



382 PHILOSOPHY of spiritual intercourse. 

ceremonial, full of law. It had not its mate. Judaism 
was therefore a great, strong, religious giant, holding 
fast to Egyptian laws. It was obliged to meet its mate 
— the feminine element— before progeny could come ; a 
true marriage was necessary before something better, 
more adapted to future generations, could be born. 
Hence the feminine part of the Grecian element, .repre- 
sented by the Platonic philosophy, had to be blended 
with Judaism before the world could receive what is 
called Christianity. 

It is the sheerest folly to say that Christianity began 
with Jesus. You might as well say that music began 
with Mozart, or that the principle of independent con- 
science be-an with Luther, as to say that Christianity 
besan with a person. Christianity is the legitimate 
Child of the marriage of the female Greek principle 
with the masculine Judaic principle. Coming from such 
parents, it inherits traits and truths from both of them, 
does it not? You who, are acquainted with Christianity 
find the characteristics and features of both parents rep- 
resented in the child, do you not? Do you not see 
Platonic philosophy and religion and theology m 
Christianity? What is the Gospel of John but a 
Platonic epistle? Is it not original Platonism from 
first to last? The most beautiful writing in the New 
Testament is the beautiful Gospel of John, and that 
Gospel is almost a perfect embodiment of the spiritual 
teachings of Plato. You read thus: « In the beginning- 
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
Word was God/' (John I, Verse 13.) And again: 
"The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, full 
of grace and truth." Platonism, you recollect, teaches 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 333 

the same doctrine; that things are the forms of pre- 
existent spiritual patterns or ideas. In other language, 
things are the incarnations of archetypal thought's that 
were God, or were with God in the spiritual universe. 
Saint John and Saint Plato both taught that spiritual 
types or ideals were prepared before creation, waiting 
for embodiment; and that when the time arrived for 
expression, or » creation," (as some writers term it,) 
then expression came. Wherefore we read in the Tes- 
tament this Platonism : « The Word became flesh and 
dwelt among men." To this conclusion you arrive: 
What you find that is superior in theology and ethics 
in the New Testament, is but an offspring of the mar- 
riage of the Grecian female philosophy with the mascu- 
line element of Judaism. In the theology and ethics of 
Christendom, we find representative traits and impres- 
sive propensities of its father and mother. In examining 
Christianity you will discover the distinguishing cha° 
racteristics of the father and mother, both parents and 
grandparents ; the feminine Greek philosophy and the 
Judaic masculine element— the latter an offspring of 
the spiritualism of the Israelites in marriage relation 
with the masculine science of the Egyptians. 

In Christianity, however, we recognize also a mas- 
culine element which required new companionship, and 
went abroad seeking its true bride. It found no com- 
panionship in Greece. Plato was not the founder of 
a masculine philosophy— Socrates was not. But Aris- 
totle, and those of his school, were founders and 
champions of the masculine in Greek philosophy. Many 
of them taught and represented perfectly, long before 
the element went out to seek its companion, the full 



384: PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

development of the male principle in the spiritual life 
of the world. 

It was this masculine element, which, going into 
Rome, formed a marriage relation with the Roman 
feminine principle ; which was exhibited as an internal 
fondness for whatsoever was at once decidedly beautiful 
and strictly useful. A union of the Roman principle 
with the Greek principle, in this intimate relation of 
marriage, introduced Christianity to all Europe. With- 
out such marriage, Christianity could not have lived 
through the medieval age and obtained an expression 
in the Western world. The feminine in Platoisin and 
in Christism, blended with the masculine in Judaism 
and in Greek philosophy, brought out the latent attri- 
butes of the Roman mind. The Roman mind was 
strictly and perfectly pledged to the development of 
Use and Power. Ctilism, strong political and legal 
institutions, and energetic devotion to what was deemed 
the most beautiful and lasting. The Roman did not 
possess a philosophic mind. His was not an artistic, 
poetic, or musical mind. Greece alone furnished the 
feminine principles of which Art, Poetry, and Music 
are expressions to mankind's five senses. In the Roman 
mind you find the Greek expressions cropping out, 
because in the offspring you always behold more or less 
of the characteristics and ruling propensities of the pro- 
genitors. Therefore in Rome you find the Art and 
Science, some of the Philosophy, a good deal of the 
Music, a little of the Poetry, and a very large propor- 
tion of the Drama, Tragedy and Comedy of ancient 
Greece, and also of the Arabian and Persian world. 
Children always receive from their parents, by physio- 



truth e 



MALE AKD FEMALE. 385 



logical and psychological inheritance, and the same is 
true of nations, races, ages, and institutions. 

Now when Rome arrived at the climax of her 
power she was substantially a rich giantess and the 
supreme head of the earth's law-makers. In the latter 
respect Rome was masculine. It eventually became 
necessary for this element to seek a new relation, That 
new relation was easily found in more Western Europe. 
The marriage resulted in the large and beautiful family 
of Literature and Art and Science and Music and 
Poetry, and resulted also in all the various forms of 
the State and Church, of Law and Democracy, of Phi- 
losophy and Progress, and in the public spirited move- 
ments of the present age. The masculine and feminine 
principles — the whole family of them — seemed to have 
culminated and gathered for their firsfand most grand 
expression in England and in France. The conjugal 
blending of those opposite principles was the gathering 
of long-estranged elements into a happy group to dwell 
for a time together in peace. It was like the gathering 
of the scattered and discordant tribes of Judea. When 
they should be gathered together, there was to be great 
rejoicing, for the foundation of the New Jerusalem 
would soon be laid. (So says the pleasant dream.) But 
the New Jerusalem was really nothing but the meeting 
of those long-wandering male and female principles — 
the children and grandchildren and the great-grand- 
children — the aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, 
and cousins near and distant — the various feminine and 
masculine principles past and present which assembled 
like a Congress in the age of Charlemagne. Then 
they found their finest and sweetest expression; but 



386 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

how very crude, how very barbarian, how exceedingly 
far beneath what is to-day seen and known of them ! 

Grave and slow old England, when many of these 
principles were gathered in her heart, openly exhibited 
a masculine development. The blending of the mascu- 
line Roman principles with the feminine principles of the 
age of Charlemagne, gave the purest and clearest 
development of Science through the mind of Bacon. 
The German inductive philosophy came also; and this, 
unlike the English Science, was truly and healthfully 
feminine. 

Anything which engerms and inspires a love of truth 
in the soul, is feminine. Science, which insists upon 
facts and accuracy in things, is invariably masculine. 
The spiritual effect of Bacon's philosophy is masculine, 
or inductive; but the truly German philosophy is femi- 
nine, or deductive. Phileo means to love, and sophia 
means wisdom. Hence the term " Philosophy," literally 
signifying the love of wisdom. Love signifies the seat 
or heart of the affections ; the life-principles and imper- 
sonal ideas of the inmost spirit. When the heart, 
therefore, goes out toward a truth, it is a bride going 
out to meet the bridegroom. The offspring of the 
Baconian philosophy are all great healthy boys — that 
is, strong, vigorous, progressive, irrepressible Sciences 
— the positive methods which that school of philosophy 
has developed throughout civilization. 

What comes next ? When a perfect marriage takes 
place between these outer sciences and a love of truth, 
the world is soon blest with young saviors. Such is tho 
originof the Daguerrean and Photographic arts, and of 
every new invention for human good, each being duly 






TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 387 

baptized and placed upon record, just as a new babe 
is added to the family and a new hand is made for 
industry. 

A truth goes out from one mind and obtains a hos- 
pitable recognition in another mind: only an intellectual 
apprehension and entertainment. But there is also 
such a fact as & spiritual love of truth. No mind can 
develop anything good and beautiful unless he first feels 
in his deep soul a love for whatsoever is good and beauti- 
ful. First, he must have the feminine inspiration and 
aspiration for and toward truth ; and next, the mascu- 
line intellectual apprehension of the scientific details by 
which that truth can alone receive its finest and highest 
expression. Thus, Daguerre went to work with the 
love of heart, which is the bride of truth, and also with 
the Baconian philosophy, which is the bridegroom, or 
form of truth, and the result was the development of a 
new art. When he received into his mind the mascu- 
line apprehension of those exact facts in chemistry con- 
cerning the action of light, and when he united with 
that apprehension the love of the good, the true and the 
beautiful, the next event was a marriage in his being, 
which in due course of time unfolded that wonderful 
art by* which the sun is made everybody's artist. 

Wherever mankind are, there you will observe this 
blending of the bridegroom and the bride. In the 
smallest, least, and most unimportant, as in the grand- 
est, most essential, and magnificent, it is clearly and 
truly like the marriage of the beautiful maiden with 
her own beloved mate. It is indorsed by Nature, our 
spirit Mother, and by her eternal companion, our spirit 
Father ; and no union can be more sacred and pro- 



ductive of human progress and happiness. The issues 
of such marriages are legitimate — beautiful offspring 
called " society," " education," "art," "poetry," "mu- 
sic," science," " philosophy," " religion," and " civiliza- 
tion," and giving " hope" and " courage" and embellish- 
ment to the great temple of human " liberty" and " pro- 
gress" — these are the darling offspring, the legitimate 
progeny, of the perfect marriages of principles of male 
and female truths in the human mind. 

You know, by your own experience, that you have 
intellectual conceptions of truths which bear no fruit — 
truths that are sterile and barren of children. Do 
you not also think of friends and acquaintances, who 
apprehend high truths and principles as clearly as you, 
and yet whose lives and characters have never been 
improved and beautified by those truths ? Their lives 
and homes have never been modified or softened or 
sweetened by that which in you has been a perpetual 
source of great strength and spiritual fertility. The 
secret is: The unchanged character has only had in his 
mind the masculine element of the truth — merely an 
intellectual apprehension of the truth, and of course it 
does not bear fruitful results in him. Perhaps in your 
own nature you have a beautiful and holy truth that 
has not improved and strengthened you. Perhaps you 
do not feel invigorated by your truth for any great 
work, either in private or public life. You may have a 
clear, sweet, reverent, religious devotion to some par- 
ticular beautiful truth, which has been alternately nest- 
ling and slumbering in your bosom for years, but it has 
never imparted to you a ray of strength — never given 
life and light enough to enable you to carry but a. 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 389 

millionth part of its dictation and positive requirements. 
"What can be the cause and the reason? Because, per- 
haps, instead of a male, you may have a feminine truth, 
which may never have met with its masculine counter- 
part or principle. If there be no marriage there can 
be no parentage or results. Suppose now that you 
should hear some preacher, politician, orator, or some 
man or woman, who said "just the right thing" — just 
what vou had been "longing" to have said, but knew 
not before exactly what it was you so longingly wanted, 
and which you were never able to give a tangible 
expression. It may be but a single word in the whole 
discourse, but that " word" struck your pent up and 
barren soul as Moses' rod struck the rock, and forth- 
with the deep fountains of your interior life are unsealed, 
and they send forth their golden spray into the great 
world about you. You are spiritually, morally strong. 
You go out into the world and you return to your 
family with a new life and a new comprehension. The 
explanation is, that the opposite element has entered 
your spirit. The bridegroom has sought and found his 
bride, or the reverse has transpired, and marriage was 
perfect and immediate. You rise strengthened, built 
up anew, and are, as it were, " born again ;" the light 
of new skies is showered upon you, and your awakened 
mind is all starry and begemmed with new and beauti- 
ful conceptions of the Divine. Persons susceptible to high 
religious influences, know the reality of these expe- 
riences. You may read the best books, you may attend 
the highest order of literary lectures, you may go to 
the most living churches for years; but unless the 
" right thing is said," and said in " the right way" to 



390 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

your inmost, you will still be waiting and longing. 
The bride will be waiting for lier mate, or the mascu- 
line for his feminine companion, within the temple 
of life. 

I used to think, uncharitably and unphilosophicallv, 
that men were very blameworthy for all deviations from 
what is deemed just and right. I have not wholly arrived 
at that conscienceless and comfortable point where 
'• whatever is, is right;" but I do most clearly see that 
men are not as culpable as they are supposed to be by 
the religious creeds of the world. Men and women 
wait for the advent of the master — the masculine and 
the feminine principles — the interior union of love and 
wisdom in the spirit. 

See, for example, how in these days America waits 
for champions to lead her armies to battle. Men had 
military principles and tactics taught to them at West 
Point; the masculine science of planning and fighting 
great battles. They knew, in theory, how to march 
and countermarch, to plot and counterplot; they under- 
stood commanding, and the management of the sword 
and musket. They understood also, by theory and 
illustration,, all the pharaphernalia of an army in its 
march to the field of battle. But all this learning was 
the masculine element; it amounted to nothing for the 
world's progress. The West Point Cadets, when in the 
city of New York, appeared like the other people, except 
:u the matter of their uniform. But the day and the 
hour arrived for some of these men to receive the femi- 
nine principle. What was it? It was the love of an 
unchangeable principle; the love of Liberty for all the 
inhabitants of this continent. When this love entered 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 391 

into the soul of these men a marriage was celebrated 
through all their faculties, and instead of being mere 
uniformed officers, they rose to manhood, and the faith- 
ful among them equaled the might of a thousand men. 
Some of the military leaders wait for opportunities. 
They will yet show you grand and valorous general- 
ship; they hesitate, waiting for the expression of the 
interior marriage, that has not yet occurred. Others, 
again go into the field mechanically ; are nothing but 
military men, with no love for any ennobling principle, 
having never felt the marriage of the principles of Lib- 
erty and Justice with the principles of military science. 
Now take spiritual truths. In our motto you read, 
"Fair truth! for thee alone we seek," &c. Does that 
sound as though you were addressing a masculine prin- 
ciple ? A great many men may think they ought to be 
so addressed, but you know that it would be an inap- 
propriate use of language. " Fair truth!" Did the poet 
not see truth to be a female — the woman principle ? 
William Cullen Bryant, in his well-known lines, says: 

" Truth crashed to earth will rise again ; 
The eternal years of God are hers." 

After recognizing thus the feminine of truth, he adds : 

41 While Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 
And dies amid his worshipers." 

What man is there that will not shrink from the 
poet's testimony that error is masculine ? We men, 
however, can read Genesis for consolation. We find 
there that woman was the cause of the world's universal 
damnation. She began the quarrel ! But, on the other 
hand, we are compelled to acknowledge that the Prince 



392 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

of Darkness was masculine. We have not heard that 
the Christian's devil was a woman. The great sphere 
of action, energy, force, is masculine ; and force, in its 
desperation and ambition to gain its point, falls, as did 
the Prince of Darkness, from these mountain-hights of 
joys delectable down to the dreary depths of hopeless 
perdition. Such operations and overthrows occur 
throughout the world, in ail history, and in much of pri- 
vate experience. 

The woman element, on the contrary, visits all these 
various recesses of darkness. Lovingly she goes to 
every part of the inhabitable globe as a missionary. 
Woman-life is a divine power ; it is not force, which is 
masculine. Woman, in essence, is love ; she is not 
intellect. Rarely does the principle of ambition gain 
highest expression in the woman mind. Force and 
ambition are masculine. If a woman's ambition is great, 
and if her love of admiration is also great, her conduct 
will correspond with such temporarily predominating 
masculine elements. But when the feminine principle 
in her spirit rouses, then she is affection, full of gentle 
dependence and of healing sympathy ; she is the inter- 
blending and transforming power of love, endowed 
richly with the missionary spirit. All women, when in 
their freedom, are missionaries in their homes and in 
all hearts. No mother can live without the inspiration 
of unselfish love for children. She goes as a missionary 
every time she visits her babe in the cradle ; thus, too, 
she visits the sick one in the chamber of sorrow and 
suffering. Man goes to lift up the body of the little 
one; to change its position in the bed ; to do something 
for the suffering. A woman goes, not only to do, but 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 393 

also to rescue and save and heal. The mother-nature 
comes to teach, to bind up the broken-hearted, and to 
pour over us all the streams of unselfish affection. The 
father-nature, the masculine element, holds up the physic- 
al relations, keeps the positive principles in action, and 
does the outward work of life. But the action of the 
mother-principle in the human mind is identical with 
the action of the masculine principle. For if a soul loves 
a spiritual truth, it will give that soul, whether man or 
woman, warmth and zeal and enthusiastic fertility. If 
love does not exist in the spirit by the side of an intel- 
lectual apprehension of the truth, there is no growth, 
no improvement. But let the love of truth be blended 
with the intellect's admiration for and apprehension of 
it, and there very soon occurs " a new birth." The 
person henceforth not only is, but begins to be, and to 
do and to live from that divinely fertile center. Deeds, 
righteous and wholesome, are the darling progeny. 
Instead of bringing over-action and fatigue, such off- 
spring bathe the spirit with rest and happiness. 

A. recent writer on the " Poetry, History, and Wis- 
dom of Words," unintentionally gives the substance of 
our philosophy in his solution of the origin of lan- 
guages : 

" The causes of that marvelous identity we call the 
English language, lie deep in the manifold influences 
[the conjugal relationships of the previously existing 
male and female principles] that have made the English 
Nation. The history of a language is measurable only 
in the terms of all the factors that have shaped a 
people's life. A nation's history is the result of the 
double action [i. e. 9 the sexual meeting and marrying] 



394: PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

of internal impulses and external events; and language 
expresses the infusions from all these — subtilely absorb- 
ing the ethnology of a nation, its geography, govern- 
ment, traditions, culture, faith. 

"The heart of our language is Anglo-Saxon. This 
is the spine on which the structure of our speech is 
hung. And yet had the Saxon been left to itself, it 
never could have grown into the English tongue. It 
needed a new element. This it found in the Norman 
French introduced with that great political and social 
revolution, the Norman conquest, which was, no doubt, 
precisely the best thing that could have happened. And 
here we have to mention the deep debt we owe to that 
illustrious nation, Italy — which for so many centuries 
led the van of European civilization — in operating the 
renaissance of Greek and Latin language and thought. 
The breath of antique genius passed over the English 
mind like the air of spring, bursting and blossoming in 
luxuriant growths of thought and speech. Of those 
three grand factors— Saxon, French, and Classical — is 
our language made up. It is the mutual influence and 
action of these that form the warp and woof of our 
English speech. Not but that other elements are, in 
greater or smaller proportions, present, and weave their 
threads into the divine web; but these are the main 
sources whence our language has enriched itself. 

" Of course the English language must take on new 
powers in America. And here we are favored by the 
genius of this grand and noble language, which, more 
than all others, lends itself, plastic and willing, to the 
molding power of new formative influences. [What 
new " formative" influences can there be but such as are 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 395 

rendered fertile and reproductive through the meeting 
and marriage of male and female principles ?] The 
future expansions of the English Language in America 
are already marked in the great lines of development 
this idiom shows. It is for us freely to follow the 
divine indications. The immense diversity of race, 
temperament, character — the copious streams of human- 
ity constantly flowing hither — must reappear in free, 
rich growths of speech. Over the transformations of a 
language the genius of a nation unconsciously presides — 
the issues of words represent issues in the national 
thought. And in the vernal seasons of a nation's life 
the formative energy puts forth verbal growths, opu- 
lent as flowers in spring." 

Science, I repeat, is masculine ; philosophy is femi- 
nine. Poetry, when genuine, is instinctive — feminine. 
It is the blending of outward and inward truths at the 
heart of the spirit. Poetry is spiritual; Music is spirit- 
ual ; therefore both Poetry and Music are feminine. 
But the science of music, as of poetical composition, is 
mechanical, or masculine ; the great, strong, beautiful 
Apollo is a representative character in old mythology. 
Pandora's box was the source of innumerable evils. 
That is also mythology. But for woman's cause it 
should be remembered that it was not Pandora's heart, 
but her box, in which she was supposed to have accu- 
mulated evils and pestilences and disorders from 
masculine sources. 

Perhaps there is more truth than mythology in the 
story. Look at the feminine principles in your mind. 
Unless they be married with something which is mas- 
culine — full of energy and full of action — they will often 



396 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

be sources of annoyance, pain, distress, and disaster to 
those about you. The most beautiful and affectionate 
principles in the human spirit, when not properly 
balanced with their mates and counterparts, will assault 
and break down the most beautiful relations subsisting 
in the social sphere between men and women, between 
women and women, and between men and men. We all 
need more balance. We are frequently imperfect. All 
men should have the power to modify and contain as well 
as the power to impart and express. 

Now the deductive principles, the method of the 
German, come fom the heart of thought. This method 
is always feminine ; reasoning from the center, out- 
wardly. Intuition is thus revealed ; it is the spirit of 
Nature ; the life of our Mother, going from her central 
fountains toward the surface. Intuition always starts 
from the 'germinal fountains of the immortal spirit ; ifc 
throws its showers of golden spray worldward — some- 
times in music, sometimes in poetry, sometimes in 
affectionate speech, sometimes in terse affirmations of 
great truths. Whatever way it expresses itself, it is still 
truly feminine. Truth is incessantly busy gathering 
to itself the means and objects of gratification. Science 
furnishes the parliamentary forms by which men may 
deal with each other in their relations to the truth. 

Women are not great inventors ; neither are the wo- 
manly elements in any mind. The uncompanionated love 
of principles in a man's mind never invented anything. 
The love of truth is a source of inspiration. It is the 
intellectual sight and comprehension of truth, calm and 
cool, without enthusiasm, full of steady-eyed science, 
with an abiding sense that something like philosophy is 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 397 

at the bottom — from such a mind, whether male or 
female, inventions will come. The sources and causes 
of inventions are the same in individual minds of either 
sex. Men are quicker in the sphere of physical results. 
No womanly element, however, in either man or woman, 
can invent. Hence many men, like women, " die without 
issue." The woman element will inspire, give life, love, 
affection, unchangeable devotion ; but the masculine 
element gives form, proportion, manifestation, embodi- 
ment. The woman-nature imparts inspiration to the 
intellectual faculties. The man-principles of mind 
think; they plan; they move; they bring in the details 
of heartless science ; they open the way through swamps 
and mountains ; they dig the channels and prepare for 
the inflowing of the golden rivers of Paradise. The 
conjugal blending of male and female truths in the 
mind, is happiness; the healthy, beloved, beautiful off- 
spring of these married truths are deeds of use and 
beauty, of philanthropy, fraternity, and progression. 

How can you put the doctrine of this lecture into 
daily practice ? I answer, easily. First find out which 
is the predominating sex in the state of your mind — ■ 
whether there be more love of principles than an intel- 
lectual comprehension of them ; or, on the other hand, 
analyze yourself to find whether you have not more com- 
prehension of principles than love in your deep affections 
for them. Whichever way you find yourself unbalanced, 
proceed at once to adjust your life to the married law. 
For example, in America we find the sentiment of lib- 
erty — t. e., the love of the principle — fifty years in 
advance of the comprehension of the requirements of 
the principle. Few persons, therefore, are competent 



398 PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

to define what Liberty is. In this respect the great 
mass of the world is dumb. But as to the sentiment — 
the feminine love of liberty — they are over-glad to sing 
it and have it sung, and are willing to contribute their 
property, their lives and sacred honor to defend and 
establish it. And yet the intellectual conception of the 
requirements of the Idea has scarcely entered the heart 
of any American. Because the masculine side of the 
principle is not yet married to the soul's love of it. 

How can you be large, unsectarian, broad and phi- 
lanthropic until you have the conception of justice, as 
well as a profound love of it, so that you will give as 
much freedom as you will take? You will not be 
large-souled enough to open the doors of freedom to all 
human beings, until you see, and love to see, that the 
divine idea of Liberty positively calls upon you to be 
just and true to its requirements, " at whatever cost/' 

And thus, also, with all the other truths. Take, 
for instance, the principle of marriage between the 
sexes. Love, unless regulated by wisdom, leads to dis- 
cordant expressions. The masculine element, the 
intellect, recognizes adaptations — the science of physio- 
logical and temperamental relations between men and 
women — and yet no relation known as marriage could 
exist without love. The protecting sphere of wisdom 
should be thrown around the conjugal love. That is 
what is meant by having truth dwelling with and in 
you, and your dwelling with and in the truth. How 
can you be " at home" unless you have a true concep- 
tion of what it is to be a man — a woman — bound together 
in true marriage ? Unless these conceptions and these 
loves dwell with you every day, giving you largeness 



TRUTHS, MALE AND FEMALE. 399 

of thought and warmth of soul, you will be restless and 
discordant with all about you. People who have none 
of these loves and conceptions in their homes, live like 
animals — full of strife, sensuality, profanity, evil- 
speakimr, and destructiveness. 

The inmates of these fashionable city homos repel 
the doctrines of *' woman's rights," no matter how 
plausibly or reasonably presented, saying that they do 
not want more rights than they now enjoy. They 
detest such controversies. Why? Because they have 
not yet so much as the love of human rights born in 
them, much less the far-reaching idea, the intellectual 
conception and comprehension. A masculine truth in 
the mind is simply admired. It does not warm your 
affections ; it is not necessary to your present happiness. 
You may admire your own truth ; you may think it is 
superlatively good : the best thing ; and yet you know 
it is only a part of your intellect. If it be a truth 
which you love also, it will always cause you to glow 
with gladness and work with joy. 

The conclusion of all is, that all truths in the mind 
need to be truly married. There can be no balance of 
character on any other basis. Any guardian angel, 
any passage of poetry, any strain of music, any scene in 
Nature, that will blend any two truths together and 
make them one in your spirit, is the high-priest of life 
to you. From that hour you will go happily forward 
in your proper sphere of labor, doing good, and exhibit- 
ing the pleasant ways of wisdom and righteousness to 
your fellow-men. The marriage of all principles in the 
mind will be known as a revelation to that mind of 
« the unity of truth." 



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¥M. WHITE & CO. 

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No. 158 Washington Street, Boston, Mass., 

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all who would investigate the teachings and religion of Spiritualism, should read 
this inspired book. It contains a New Collection of Gospels by Saints not before 
canonized, and its chapters are teeming with truths for humanity, and with fresh 
tidings from the beloved beyond the tomb. The names of the new Saints are: — t 
Kishis, St. Menu, St. Confucius, St. Siamer, St. Syrus, St. Gabriel, St. John, St 
Pneuma, St James. St. Gerrit, St. Theodore, St Octavius, St. Samuel, St. Eliza, St 
Emma, St Ralph, St. Asaph, St Mary, St. Selden, St. Lotta. Price, $1.50; postage, 
80 cents. 



THE MAGIC STAFF: 
An Autobiography of Andrew Jackson Davis. 

u This most singular biography of a most singular person, 1 * has been extensively 
read in this country, and is now translated and published in the German language. 
It is a complete personal history of the clairvoyant experiences of the author from 
his earliest childhood to 1S56. Ail important details are carefully and conscientiously 
given. Every statement is authentic and beyond controversy. In this volume 
(including the autobiographical parts of "Arabula" and "Memoranda" which 
enter largely into the author's personal experiences), the public will find a final 
answer to all slanders and misrepresentations. Thousands of copies of the 
•' Magic Staff" have been sold in the United States, and the demand, instead of 
being supplied, is increasing. Price, $1.75; postage, 24 cents. 



MEMORANDA OF PERSONS, PLACES, AND EVENTS: 

Embracing- Authentic Facts, Visions, Impressions, Discoveries in 
Magnetism, Clairvoyance, and Spiritualism. 

This volume of transcripts from the observation and experience of Mr. Davis 
will be welcomed with great pleasure by his tens of thousands of readers, in which 
they will find a great variety of those fresh and fleeting "impressions" of the 
inspired seer, carefully set down by his own hand for a period of over twenty-two 
years, that can not but let them further than ever into his own nature, and the mys- 
terious realms which his vision is permitted to penetrate and search. There is a 
peculiar freshness,about this latest book from Mr. Davis that makes it specially 
attractive to the general reader. His off-hand characterization of persons of note 
will strike all as peculiarly apt and effective. In iact, it is a sort of mirror for all to 
look into. This volume should be read by all who have perused the "Magic Staff." 
The Appendix, containing the fine translation of Zschokke's tale of the " Transfig- 
uration," will attract all to its perusal, since it illustrates the curative powers of 
human magnftism, and the spiritual beauty and purity of the superior condition. 
This book is also paiticularly valuable to history, because it contains a chapter 
written by Mary F. Davis, concerning the " Introduction of the Harmonial Phi- 
losophy into Germany." Price, $1.50; Postage, 20 sents. 



6 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPECIAL PROVIDENCES. 

This is a small pamphlet of fifty-five pages, but is living with thought. Thi 
author considers the question, "Are there Special Providences?" and no one can 
fail to be instructed and elevated by its perusal. The pamphlet contains Two 
Visions, and An Argument. Price, 20 cents. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OP SPIRITUAL INTERCOURSE. 

Contents. — Truth and Mystery; God's Universal Providence; The Miracles of 
this Age; The Decay of Superstition; The Guardianship of Spirits; The Discern- 
ment of Spirits; The Stratford Mysteries; The Doctrine of Evil Spirits; The 
Origin of Spirit Sounds; Concerning Sympathetic Spirits; The Formation of 
Circles; The Resurrection of the Dead; A Voice from the Spirit Land; The True 
Religion. In this thrilling work the reader is presented with an account of the 
very wonderful Spiritual Developments at the house of the Uev. Dr. Phelphs, of 
Stratford, Connecticut; and besides these, the work is replete with similar cases in 
all parts of the country. This work is completed by its sequel, entitled " Present 
Age and Inner Life." Price, in paper, 60 cents; cloth, $1.00; postage, 1G cents. 



FREE THOUGHTS CONCERNING RELIGION. 

This pamphlet contains short .arguments, fresh and vigorous, substantiated by 
plain historical and geological facts, against the popularly received idea that the 
44 Bible is the word of God." Infallibility is demolished, and creeds finely 
pulverized in the mill of truth. As a little pamphlet, it is calculated to "stir up 
thought" in a bigoted neighborhood. We recommend "Free Thoughts Con- 
cerning Religion." Price, 20 cents. 



THE HARMONIAL MAN. 

Contents. — IIow shall we Improve Society? The Influence of Churches; The 
Necessity of Organic Liberty; Mankind's Natural Needs; The Means by which to 
Secure Them; The Philosophy of Producing Rain; A Statement of Popular 
Theories; The Causes of Rain Explained; The Philosophy of Control Una: liain; 
Answer to Scientific Objections; Plagiarism; Clairvoyance Illustrated; What will 
People Say; The Pirate's Simple Narrative. The contents of this little work are 
designed to enlarge man's views concerning the political and ecclesiastical condition 
of our country, and to point out, or at least to suggest, the paths of reform which 
the true Ilarmonial Man shall tread. We might add many commendatory notices 
of the press, but it is deemed sufficient to give the reader an idea of the work, bj 



publishing its table of contents. Those who know Mr. Davis' style of treating his 
subjects, will not need to be informed that this little book is full of important 
thoughts. Price, in paper, 50 cents ; cloth, 75 cents ; postage, 16 cents. 



THE APPROACHING CRISIS: 

A Review of Dr. BushnelTs Lectures on Supernaturalism. 

The great question of this age, which is destined to convulse and divide Protest- 
antism, and around which all other religions controversies must necessarily revolve, 
is ex^getically foreshadowed in this Review, which is composed of six discourses 
delivered by the author before the Ilarmonial Brotherhood of Hartford, Connecticut. 
It i3 affirmed by many of the most careful readers of Mr. Davis's works, that the 
b^st explanation of the "Origin of Evil," and of "Free Agency, 11 is to be found in 
this Review. Price, cloth, $1.00; postage, 18 cents. 



THE HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OP EVIL. 

The headings of the chapters in this pamphlet give an idea of its purport, viz. t— 
I. The Unity of Truth; II. The Anti-Human Theory of Evil; III. The Inter-Hu- 
man Theory of Evil; IV. The Super-Human Theory of Evil; V. The Spiritual 
Theory of Evil ; VI. The Ilarmonial Theory of Evil; VII. The Cause of Civiliza- 
tion; VIII. The World's True Saviour Discovered; IX. The Ilarmonial Cure of 
Evil. The whole question of evil — individual, social, national, and general — is fully 
analyzed and answered by the author in this compact pamphlet. It has been exten- 
sively circulated, and is highly prized by all intelligent readers on both sides of the 
Atlantic. Price, in paper, 50 cents; cloth, 75 cents; postage, 12 cents. 



DEATH, AND THE AFTER LIFE. 

This little work contains three Lectures, and a Voice from the Summer Land. 
The t: .1 ps are : — \. Death, and the After Life; II. Scenes in the Summer Lmd; III. 
Society in the Summer Land; IV. Voice from James Victor Wilson. Thousands of 
this new and consoling pamphlet have been published and sold. In the sick-room, 
where spiritual consolations are required, or in the hands of the lonely and bereft, 
this work is effective. Price, in paper, 35 cents; cloth, 50 cents; postage, 8 cents. 



THE CHILDREN'S PROGRESSIVE LYCEUM. 

A Manual, with Directions for the Organization and Management of Sunday 
Schools, adapted to the Bodies and Minds of the Young, and containing Rules, 
Methods, Exercises, Marches, Lessons, Questions and Answers, Invocations, Silver 



8 

Chain Recitations, Hymns, and Songs, If any doubt that this Lyceum movement !• 
an inspiration, let them stand among the groups a single day; let them feel the holy 
influences that fall in showers from the higher spheres ; the uprisings of the soul, as 
involuntarily it answers to the call from its true home; the inspirations tbut fall 
upon the heart like angel breathings, thrilling each string with melody, and filling 
the whole being with a yearning for God and Heaven. Hundreds of these beautiful 
"Chi! dre^s Lyceums" have been organized during the past year, and thousands of 
juveniles and youths of both sexes have embarked on the great journey of progres- 
sion. This Manual is a chart to indicate the best methods in the grouping and educat- 
ing process. Price, 70 cents; postage, 8 cents; for twelve copies, $8.0C ; for fifty 
conies, $30.00 ; and for one hundred copies, $50.00. 

We have also published an 



ABRIDGED EDITION OP THE LYCEUM MANUAL, 

Comprising all the Rules, Marches, Lessons, Silver Chain Recitations, Hymns, Songs, 
&c, printed on good paper, and firmly bound in cloth, at 40 cents per copy, and 4 cents 
postage if sent by mail ; for twelve copies, $4.00 ; for fifty copies, $16.00 ; and for one 
hundred copies, $28.00. 

The whole set (twenty-two volumes) $24.00; a most valuable present for a library 
public or private. 

We have also a large Lithographic Likeness of the Author. Price, $1.25. 



On receipt of $24.00, we will carefully and securely pack and ship, to order, 
one copy of each of these works, and also one lithographic likeness. 



When drafts on Boston or New York can not be procured, we desire our pa- 
trons to send, in lieu thereof, a Post-Office money order. Post-Office orders are 
always safe, as are registered letters under the new law. 



Send all orders to WILLIAM WHITE & CO., Publishers, 
Banner of Light Office, 158 Washington Street, Boston, Mass. 

New York Agents : American News Company. 



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